Artifical snow machine

[JonTupper]

Hi Folks,

 

We just did our first LOR Christmas Lights show this year. 32 channels, 4 songs, FM broadcast.  It was very well received.

 

I live in Northern Alberta (Canada) and it gets pretty cold up here in December.  I've been toying with the potential of making it snow for the finale of our show next year.  There are two options for doing that.

 

1) An artificial snow maker/blower that creates simulated biodegradable snow. They're cheap, they're easy to use, and they start "making it snow" right away.  But I don't know if they would work in cold weather

 

2) A small snow maker like the ski hills use. They're big, they're a bit expensive, and I'd have to re-plumb in a freeze resistant outdoor valve and also clear the hose line every night.

 

Has anyone in the north used an artificial snow maker and know what their temperature range is? Or attempted to make a snow shower effect in below freezing weather?

 

[robongar]

With the amount of snow you get. Do you really think anybody would appreciate artificial snow? It would be a bit like taking sand to the desert, don't you think?

But, it's your show. What ever you feel good about.

[Say watt??]

With the amount of snow you get. Do you really think anybody would appreciate artificial snow? It would be a bit like taking sand to the desert, don't you think?

But, it's your show. What ever you feel good about.

I don't really think he was asking whether or not he should use fake snow in his show. He wants suggestions on the type of equipment that would be best suited to do it. Just sayin'.

Edited January 6, 2016 by Say watt??

[Redbirdruss]

This might be worth a try: http://www.snsnowmaking.com/2011/step1-snowmaker-parts.php

[kingfish]

i live in western pa and this year we did not get are first snow till this week ; i think snow would be nice but i am a freind of the real stuff. 

 

i think you could make a small snow machine pretty easy all it is .  compressed air and water vapor.   i would use a compressor and some sort of water mister

 

i think it could be done  somewhat cheaply.  the compressor would be the only real expense

[kingfish]

lokking at previos post to mine. i have the compressor and all the other stuff . i also have a big pressure washer

 

snow could be in the making . kids would love it

[Say watt??]

If you could have snow falling and get some sort of lighting (a strobe or colored flood maybe)to reflect off of it, I can see that having a pretty cool effect. A camera flash outside while it's snowing looks kinda neat.

[JonTupper]

Say Watt, that's what I'm going for.  This year one of the songs we did was "Let it Go." from Frozen. I loved the show but I would have loved to do a finale where the lights go dark the snow machine fires up from the back side of the roof, then the lights go on in a big crescendo of light sound and snow. So shy of finding Elsa to do that for me, I need a mechanism..

 

And again my two issues are 1) Using water to make snow would be easiest but user intensive. and 2) I don't know if an artificial snow machine would work in sub freezing temperatures.

[bwinter]

I would question if you would actually be making *snow* or would it be *sleet*?

My understanding is that the formation of a snowflake (that light, airy, fluffy thing you want), is a rather complicated process of crystallization of water around a nucleation point (that takes a significant amount of time, as the flake falls/floats through the atmosphere). This is something that ski slopes try to deal with, as their "artificial snow" is often very icy/grainy (I.e., "sleet").

Just my speculation, though...

[Say watt??]

That's a good point bwinter. Big fluffy flakes would definitely reflect light much better.

Sounds like you have some experimenting to do Tupper. I'm not familiar with any type of artificial snow making myself. I don't like dealing with the real stuff, why would I try to make it intentionally. LOL

My gut tells me the biodegradable snow maker will probably be the best bet.

Edited January 10, 2016 by Say watt??

[bwinter]

Now that I think about it more, I think a *snowflake* is water-VAPOR that's crystalized around a nucleation point (a lengthy process as the flake develops in the atmosphere).  *Sleet* is a water-DROPLET that's frozen to ice.  Anything that comes out of a hose would be a water droplet (even if it's a mister--it's just a smaller droplet/smaller sleet-pellet).

 

That's why you can tell when a ski-slope has used artificial "snow"--it's grainy (because it's sleet).  I doubt "SNOW-machine" (in the proper sense) is even an accurate term.  I think they're really just SLEET-machines.

 

But yeah, play around and see what happens (the only real way to tell).

[Steven]

Some interesting facts about snow, sleet, hail, and freezing rain:

http://www.accuweather.com/en/features/trend/hail-or-sleet-how-to-tell-the-1/2930665

http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/%28Gh%29/guides/mtr/cld/prcp/home.rxml