Thanks guys. Our main living area is about 700sq. ft. Has vaulted 12/8 pitch high ceiling. Unfortunately the only opening windows are one in each bedroom. So I cannot vent one like PAsig has. So I just have one window unit in a bedroom. So I am talking about changing it out for the bigger more efficient unit. Like I mentioned we use a box fan to blow cooler air out of the bedroom out in to the main living area. Usually only in the later evenings for about 4-6 hours.
Sounds like a 15amp breaker should handle that costco unit.

I watched a video or two on the Midea unit.
Looks impressive for what it is.
Not sure if ur a married man, but my spousal unit Opus II had to be warm in Winter and COOL in summer.
She said "Your prepping ideas are smart/cool but if we lose cable & AC in summer, do YOU really wanna survive?" I had to laugh & say you have a point...

Don’t they make D-I-Y mini splits, precharged? Just connect and go?

^^^Yes!

Youtube makes mini-split install look easy. It took 2 pros about 3 hours to install my 24,000 btu unit.

ORC a 700 sq ft room would be perfect for a mini split. Our family room is a converted 2 car garage approx 700 sq ft with limited ductwork.
Mine will freeze you out if you want it to and the heat strips work well.

there’s no one near you that can install a mini split?

Evaporative cooling uses the latent heat of vaporization to remove energy from the water via phase change. This cools down the water, not the air. It relies on surface area, so the water is misted or otherwise presented as finely as possible and you either get a lot of misting airflow from a swamp cooler, or you're just blowing over the wet pad to try and use the colder water to bring air temperature down in an evaporative cooler.

If you look up the wet bulb temperature this is effectively the temperature you're using to cool the water, and depending on humidity this can be 20°F lower than normal air temp in dry conditions or 0°F at 100%RH

So the swamp coolers or evaporation coolers deliver a "wet" airstream that's been cooled maybe 10°F from the ambient air temperature. But they do it with a small spray pump and a fan.

The major downside is that you're creating a damp, dark, nutrient-rich environment (having brought in water then evaporating it and leaving all the minerals and "food" behind) and if left unchecked you can develop some nasty bacterial growth, along with the scale mentioned. The condensed water will have a different pH as well, which is part of where corrosion can come from. You're also working the process twice- you have to cool the water, to then cool the air that was just used to cool the water, so expect bigger machines to increase surface area.

Refrigeration works so much better, and is a whole lot less weather dependent. It does require more energy to run, it's a more complex system that runs at high pressure and must be closed/sealed and therefore more costly for repairs. But I doubt anyone would see a $300 evap cooler as anything but a disposable appliance, where a $300 mini A/C can be repaired by any HVAC tech to some degree.

quote:

Originally posted by doublesharp:
I had a mini-split installed last year to supplement my main a/c. Great results, house is cooler and elec bill went down since main unit isn't running so often.

I've never used one but those U-shaped window units look promising. They are advertised as being whisper quiet and energy Star efficient. Costco has a 12,000 btu on sale for $300.

https://www.costco.com/midea-u...duct.4000234455.html

Doublesharp - Thanks for posting this U shaped AC unit. I just watched three different DIY installs and two feedback videos and for $300.00 this unit looks to be the perfect solution for our upstairs “extra room”. Thanks again for posting this info.

quote:

Originally posted by tonelar:
there’s no one near you that can install a mini split?

I don't think that's the issue. Rather, based on his comment about "not having an installer that I could spring for", it sounds like it's simply out of his price range.

Even without install costs, you're not going to find a mini-split system for the ~$300 of that swamp cooler he was looking at or that suggested Costco window AC unit... It'd be more like $1300 (plus install).

And from what I've seen lately with both my Dad and a friend considering mini-splits and getting install bids, install seems to run 2x-4x the cost of the system itself. (Which was a shock to both them and myself!) Now you're looking at something like $3000-$6000 total for that mini-split.

So either every single HVAC/electrical guy hates doing mini-splits and has decided to price themselves out of it, or install is not quite as simple as a 7 minute DIY Youtube video would make it seem...

I don’t think the AC guys hate mini-splits, rather the business model is to make money selling you the system and installing it. If you buy the system yourself, they don’t make money selling you the system.

If the system cost you $1,000 and costs them $1,000, they’ll want to mark it up when they sell it to you. Maybe 100% even, so they’ll sell it to you for $2,000 plus the labor to install it.

all the install's on youtube are on vertical slider windows. I have a 3x4' horizontal slider. Sure there are instructions for those type of installs.