A friend of mine in SoCal has cooled her house to 82 degrees inside with a swamp cooler. It’s 104 outside and she consistently gets about 20 degrees cooler using it. It costs her about $2.50 a day to run it, though she says her arm sticks to the table a little. I guess that’s why it’s primarily used in low humidity climates. Per this news article from Palm Springs, CA dewpoint is the key measure. Read on for more pros and cons.
Still, my friend is getting pretty amazing cost savings as long as the power stays on. Otherwise, she might be out of luck. I’ve seen swamp coolers on my desert camping trip. They’re kind of neat. Not really my thing since I deal ok with the heat, but it seems like it might be an economical, CFC/toxic-coolant-free way to cool down a home.
If you read the Wikipedia link, you’ll see that power generation cooling towers are essentially the same thing.
If you’re sweating it out in CA, I’m sorry. Last week the heat finally broke in DC and for the first time after work I was able to drive home with the windows down and the AC completely off.
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I’ve never heard of a swamp cooler. I will have to look into it.
It sounds like a great alternative to AC but only if–as you stated–the power stays on.