Thinking about getting a small EC for the living room - just enough to take the edge off really hot days. If that works, maybe one for a bedroom that doesn't have a window big enough to allow an air conditioner.

Three questions:

1. Do they work in humid weather?

2. How much moisture do they add to the air? I have visions of water dripping off the furniture.

3. How often do the belts need to be replaced? If they get nasty/moldy and need to be replaced every other week, that can get expensive as I'm seeing belts @ $35 a pop.

They will cool your rooms down, but will add moisture to the air, normally they are best in dry climate areas. For humid areas AC units are best, for $100 you can get a window shaker at any big box store..

Used to be called swamp coolers, can't say how much humidity you'll get, but it's going to add moisture to the air, since that's how they work.

Thought about one for the garage here in the summer, some local shops have them, but it's already humid enough!

Portacool is a major supplier. Depending on the size of the room the 510 or cyclone series may work, watch Woot, once a year they put these on sale and they go fast! During the summer you don't find discounts on cooling devices LOL

Knowing you (through the posts) though you'll build your own after digging a well, using an old electric pump you got from a friend, then pumping cold water to a radiator from a 1956 Farmall tractor, powered by a diesel lawn engine and a fan from a 47 Ford.

Link

Just get an air conditioner, these evaporative coolers are made for hot, DRY climates, not the East Coast where the summers are always humid as hell.

As far as your bedroom that doesn't have a window big enough for an AC, just get a portable AC unit, all you need is about 10 inches to hook up the exhaust hose plate.

Got a friend who lives in Lost Wages and he's got a 4,500 Sq. Ft. House to cool.

He said he uses the swamp coolers when the humidity is low and the regular air conditioners when humidity is higher.

And no, the swamp coolers don't work well at all in high humidity.

They don't work, period, in high humidity.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
Got a friend who lives in Lost Wages and he's got a 4,500 Sq. Ft. House to cool.

I'm assuming that means Arizona? Hot and dry, right?

Maine as well as the rest of the East Coast nearly never has hot and dry weather, it's always nasty humidity along with the heat. Just today the humidity and the temp were about the same here in PA: 88, ugh. Nasty.

What the OP is referring to will not work where he lives.

Yer tax dollars at work

Where do Evap Coolers work best - USGS

A = Yes
B = Ehhhhh yeah some
C = Nope, buy AC unit

Yep, swamp coolers

I have only seen them used outside and in work shops. I would think the extra humidity wouldn't be good for the interior of your house

We have a portable a/c unit downstairs that we use to cool the entire area down and get the humidity out. Like this

https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-50...nditioner/5000143959

There are portable units that sit on the floor, they appear to me to be comparable to a window unit, just without the window.

I tried the non industrial portable air conditioners.

They were horrible. Tried top of the line twice.

On paper they should have kept a room twice the size of my bedroom cool. If it hit the eighties it was just a fan moving air.

Went back to window units, then did mini splits to the whole house.

Used the industrial portable air conditioners at work to cool overheating data rooms and they worked well.

Forget swamp coolers in New England

I cool my house with a large commercial evap cooler UNTIL the summer rains come. Then it gets shut off, and the A/C gets turned on.

quote:

1. Do they work in humid weather?

NOPE!

Thanks, all.

As I suspected, not a solution for us.

How do the portable AC units work without exhausting heat outside? Seems to me you'd be getting cool air out the front and hot air out the back.

They have to exhaust out through a window. Have you considered the small A/C split units for a single room?? They work great and are energy efficient.

Ductless mini splits work great; I have them in my house.
They're not cheap, though.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Thanks, all.

As I suspected, not a solution for us.

How do the portable AC units work without exhausting heat outside? Seems to me you'd be getting cool air out the front and hot air out the back.

They exhaust the hot air out the window with a tube and an adjustable panel to fit the window space.

We have one for hurricane season here in Florida and It works reasonably well. Unit sits on casters on the floor, has a 3 or so gallon receptacle for condensate, and a 4 or so inch dryer style tube to vent the hot air outside. The condensate can be pumped out the window by putting a separate coiled tube out the window and setting the unit to pump out.

Easy Peasey. More expensive than a window unit, but will fit any window size as you can make your own panel for the 4 inch hose to pass through, pump put every other day or every third day, and wheel the sucker into a closet for the cool nights when you don't need it. No wrestling a heavy unit out the window, only to see it plunge to it's doom when you lose your grip on it.

Get a portable, fit the window panel, and sleep cool. No regrets.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:

They exhaust the hot air out the window with a tube and an adjustable panel to fit the window space.

[snip]

Get a portable, fit the window panel, and sleep cool. No regrets.

That seems like the best plan. I'll see what I can find tomorrow.

Again, thanks everyone.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:

They exhaust the hot air out the window with a tube and an adjustable panel to fit the window space.

[snip]

Get a portable, fit the window panel, and sleep cool. No regrets.

That seems like the best plan. I'll see what I can find tomorrow.

Again, thanks everyone.

Understand that they are not as efficient as a regular window unit, but by God, they do bring the temp and humidity down to a livable level, and beat the holy hell out of no AC at all. Plus, ours is 12 years old now, and I suspect the new ones are better.

When I was in college back in the 70's one apartment building I lived in had an evaporative system for the entire building. The problem with this type of cooling is that it is IMPOSSIBLE for it to cool the air lower than the Dew Point. Since the ducts for the system ran under the roof deck and were about 25 degrees over ambient that system only worked well in the spring or fall.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

quote:

1. Do they work in humid weather?

NOPE!

Bingo