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Swamp Coolers; are they useful during the rainy season?


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I know that I have read that air conditioning is not helpful during periods of low to no humidity (like now) and that you need a swamp cooler to add some moisture and cool the air to the house. I am wondering if the same holds true when the rainy season begins when it can become quite sticky. Do you switch to air conditioning then? And if so, how would one drain an air conditioner if it is not sticking out of a window?

Also, we are looking at a swamp cooler that advertises a side for ice and a separate side for just water. We were thinking that maybe the packs that you freeze for portable coolers would be a good substitute for ice and save endless trips to shop for ice. Can someone offer advice?

Thanks in advance.

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You are correct in assuming that swamp coolers are most efficient in very dry conditions, and not very desireable in really humid times. Also, they must have a source of outside air, so must be installed in a wall or placed in an open doorway. The latter might defeat the purpose. If this season is too hot for you at Lakeside, you may have chosen the wrong home, as orientation is everything and cross ventilation is crucial. West walls, especially, should be protected from the setting sun, and all rooms should have cross ventilation, preferably N-S, so that they can be open all night to let the house cool. Roofs should be white, not dark colors. If you follow those rules in choosing a location, a fan should be all you need in April and May. Air conditioning is terribly expensive to operate and should be avoided. Once in the DAC bracket with CFE, it is not easy to get out just because you turned off the AC.

We tried a swamp cooler once, but soon sold it as more nuisance than benefit.

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There was a long thread on this subject .....you might want to hunt it down since so many opinions were offered.

We did have the dark red-brown paint on our roof and then had it repaired and painted white. It made a big difference in the house temps.

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I bought a swamp cooler last year from someone via the board, and I am very happy with it!I I think it originally came from Best Buy in Guad. It is tall and elegant and its name is C3PO, as my rather squat propane heater for winter is R2D2. (Alas, I am at the stage of naming inanimate objects.) It is tall and thin and gets its water supply by being hauled next to the shower where I have a shower head with a hose. It backs up to an open window, which is essential for its function. It is a bit noisy but when the temps get hot, happiness and bliss ensues! Highly recommended!!!

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We had a swamp cooler in AZ and when it would rain in the monsoons and the humidity got about 50% it was no good or when it got over 95 degrees it didn't work great either but it hardly does that here.

We have been to lots of Dr.'s offices lately and those wall mounted little air conditioners with the remotes seem to be the way to go, they don't use that much electicity a day like $10p a day.

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I love my evaporative cooler on about 98% of the hot days. Because almost always when it is hot, the humidity is very low here in upper Ajijic.

Right now the relative humidity on my porch is 24% and the tempurature about 87 F (30.5 C).

The air coming into my house from the rooftop evaportative cooler is at this moment exactly 68 F or 20 C. I don't know what the humidity in the house is, but it's not very high.

Luckily, usually, when the humidity is high it has recently rained out and therefore the temperature is much cooler

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You can buy them where they are AC only or heat+AC. They are great for just one room and can be mounted almost anywhere.

I had one in ABQ which is much hotter and colder and it would keep a 400 sq ' garage comfortable.

It was the smallest that I could find

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When the rainy season starts it usually isn't hot enough to worry about cooling off. That is why we start betting when the rains will start and who heard rain birds first because it is so hot and cools off when it rains.

I don't think I've needed a fan once the rain starts but my memory could be off.

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Your memory is suspect. I have been here for 8 years and every year BEFORE the swamp cooler, I regretted that I had not done something to make the bedroom more habitable. Of course, there is always departing for Tapalpa (highly recommended!) albeit the Guad Squad is there.

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Your memory is suspect. I have been here for 8 years and every year BEFORE the swamp cooler, I regretted that I had not done something to make the bedroom more habitable. Of course, there is always departing for Tapalpa (highly recommended!) albeit the Guad Squad is there.

I don't understand your post. Are you saying my memory is suspect? In over 8 years I do not remember it being hot and needing a fan or cooler once the rains start. The OP asked about using a swamp cooler during the rainy season. That is why we become so anxious for the rains to start because it cools everything off.

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I agree with Joco. I have only been here 6 years, but once the rains start, I rarely even need a fan. If you suffer greatly in heat, it only lasts 2 1/2 months and it's dry heat. Not that awful, sticky, humid heat you find so many places. Air conditioning??? Here??? If you need AC here, you made a very bad housing decision. I agree that a swamp cooler can help cool a relatively small space. You might also look into exterior window shades to shade the windows from the sun.

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You can make a swamp cooler with a nice cotton sheet and a fan. Soak the sheet and aim the fan running at the hanging sheet. Will work till the rains start on June 10th or whatever. Very old trick.

You can hang the sheet right in the doorway of the trailer. :unsure:

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No, I don't mean "mobile home". I mean "trailer". Most "mobile homes", once parked, don't go anywhere unless there is a tornado.

I once worked in a situation where the office was in what was called an "office trailer", in that case far preferable to the rest of the building where dust was everywhere. It had a "swamp cooler", well named, because the inside of the office most often felt like a swamp. There are devotees of "swamp coolers" and they are welcome to them. Where is a snowy Alp when you want one? :017:

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  • 10 months later...

Swamp coolers work very well when the humidity is low and when sized correctly. The lower the humidity the higher the temperature difference. However, if it is too small or not vented properly you can just call it a humidifier!

The key is the air flow. Rule of thumb is that it should blow in as much air as the total volume being cooled every minute. And that air must have unobstructed flow back outside. So the cooler sits in a window and blows in and windows elsewhere are left open. The cool follows the path from the cooler to the exit, so you can determine which rooms are coolest by how easy it is for the air to escape to the outdoors. Closing windows to make it cooler will instead make it warmer and stickier!

Never use a swamp cooler in a single room unless there is a second window open to let the moist air out.

I have an about 1700 sq ft home in Colorado. I use a single unit in either the bedroom OR the living room. It keeps the whole house cool even when it is over 90° outside. I hope to bring one to Chapala and install it on the mirador into the staircase in hope the cool air will cascade down and flow out where the windows are open. We should be able to cool the whole house. It should have an airflow of over 10,000 cu ft / min of air. We'll see!

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Evaporative Cooling works if you live in a very dry, arid area. We in Arizona relied upon them for years. But, the water supply was switched from well water to water from the Central Arizona Project. Somewhere up in northern Arizona, the Little Colorado River flows over a salt deposit. That ruined it. We put in air conditioning.

They are labor intensive. Prepare to spend a lot of time on the roof. You have to make sure you replace the deodorante blocks on schedule or there will be a very funky smell. That is where the swamp part comes in.

Make sure the sacrificial anode is replaced a couple of times every season. Also, you must replace the pads every season.

Before you invest the money, examine your situation and decide if it is in your interest to go with an evaporative cooler. And no, they will not work in the rainy season.

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Been here since 1997 and have used a whole house roof top evaporative cooler, every time the air inside is hot and the air being pumped into my cooler from outside is relatively dry. And almost every time it is hot, is before the rainy season starts and when the air outside is dry.

I have never used a sacrificial anode, and should the water become slightly dirty, I drain it, refill the cooler, place a very small amount of powdered Chlorine therein and, I don't have a problem with the smell of chlorine.

I also only replace the evaporative pads when I have to, which is once every few years.

Oh, I measure the temperature both outside and inside and have a humidity meter outdoors that sends a wireless signal indoors so I know whether the evaporative cooler will help or not. And I, of course have a window open at the far end of the house from the cooler to let the air out.

At one time before the remodel I also placed an Air Conditioner in the bedroom just in case it was both very hot and humid out. I almost never used it and when I remodeled in 2008 I took the almost never used A/C out and gave it away,

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  • 1 year later...

I did bring the evaporative cooler from Colorado and have it blowing in a window onto the top of the stairs in the house here.  It works so well that we are running it on low fan speed.  The indoor temperature is usually about 77° when it is above 90° outside.  I am looking for one to permanently install for next year.  It is a great success.

We always have windows open somewhat to control which rooms are coolest and to keep the humidity down.

 

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I have been using a swamp cooler since I came down in 1997. It always worked well as long as it was not too humid out. However I head north every year around mid May and don't come back down until late June. So I don't know about that period. Once I get back, the rainy season has started and the rain when it comes down acts like my swam cooler and keeps the air cool enough that I almost never needed to turn the evaporative cooler on. And when I did turn it on often it was when the humidity was low enough so that the cooler would cool the air enough to make it comfortable.

An air conditioner is supposed to condition the air as it cools the air. Sadly what we call an air conditioner works on the refrigeration principle and always lowers the humidity when it cools the air. Usually, lakeside when it is too hot the air is already too dry and to properly condition the air one needs to raise the humidity which is exactly what a swamp cooler does. Here in Seattle were I will be for the next 6 weeks, the air is never dry when it gets hot. Here I have to use the more expensive to operate option and can almost never use a swamp cooler

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On 4/30/2014 at 3:11 PM, gringal said:

There was a long thread on this subject .....you might want to hunt it down since so many opinions were offered.

We did have the dark red-brown paint on our roof and then had it repaired and painted white. It made a big difference in the house temps.

Oh how funny as I use the dark red paint on our roof cause it makes the house warmer which I like. 

 

 

 

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i saw an interesting homemade cooler on the internet. it was made from a 19L bucket, 3 holes in the side with PVC pipe coming out a few inches. on the top was a small fan inverted into the bucket and inside was a frozen plastic gallon jug of water....wish i had one right now.

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