The best way to stay cool is to use evaporative cooling or a swamp coolers . Yup, you guessed it, ours broke down this past week! Luckily we have two A/C's but unluckily it was our sleeping quarter A/C's that broke down.
Many people told us about "Swamp Coolers" (Evaporative Coolers) in the past. Evaporative coolers are fans that blow out water. They work best in dryer climates with windows and doors open right in front of the unit so they can draw in the hot, dry (not moist or humid air. The best thing to do is run your evaporative cooler during the night, when it is cooler and then trap the moist cool air in the house. You can also add ice to most units to maximize the cooling effect. Evaporative cooling only lowers the temperature by 10-20 degrees depending on the unit, humidity and size of the area you are cooling. So it won't be as cold as A/C but it will make a difference.
You can buy portable units at large hardware stores like Home Depot & Lowes. Unfortunately, their units are not small portable units for the most part. You can buy smaller portable units at online specialty sites such as this. Unfortunately the portable units can only cool areas of only 200-400 square feet. Some of the smaller units are cheaper than ceiling fans so it wouldn't hurt to buy a couple to have them around and use them during the "less hot" summer months.
Evaporative Cooling units are a little less harsh on the environment because they use way less electricity, no freon or refrigerants. They do use a ton of water though. Ours chugs through about 5 gallons of water a day.
All the Best,Realtor®
Nevada Realty Solutions - Your Dream, Your Investment, You\'re Home!
8942 Spanish Ridge Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89148
direct: 702-580-1783
fax: 702-995-8237
Renee@ReneeBurrows.com
http://www.ReneeBurrows.com
If I lived in a dry climate I would certainly go for the swamp cooler. We had one in El Paso and it used about $35 in electricty per month. I can't understand why people want cold A/C where swamp coolers are just as effective and much more energy efficient. Not to mention quite a bit cheaper! As an aside, when we were 12 days then 8 days without electricty in 04, it didn't bother us a bit not to have A/C. Funny how we can adapt in such a short period of time!
Terry Haugen - STAGE it RIGHT!
Hi Rene,
Swamp coolers bring back a lot of childhood memories for me. My family had the only air conditioner (swamp) in the neighborhood and when the valley temps would reach 100 degrees, all the neighbors would come over to get cool. They are noisy and blow a lot of air from their vent but they are better than nothing, that is for sure!
Now back to the dog licking the ice cream cone...is that your dog? That is one happy dog.
Blue Ridge Real Estate: Probably not an option, you are correct!
Marchel: LOL! Coming from Nebraska, hadn't a clue what a swamp cooler was!
Steve: Miss that from when I lived in Neb. When we needed a respite, the basement was where it was!
Terry: I cannot believe all the benefits of a swamp cooler! It is amazing: not only is it less expensive but it helps your wood furniture, skin, etc!
Charles: I even think we can drag the bad boy outside for parties to help cool an area underneath our patio. Have you tried that and does it work? Thanks for adding Sam's Club, I am a Costco gal and couldn't find them there!
Sheron: Definitely better than nothing! Our room is always a nightmare to cool (faces west towards the setting sun) and we have been using it (post AC getting fixed) overnight and the room now stays cool all day long! Yes that is my dog discovering ice cream for the first time!
Christina: That is my husband who is a nutjob for his puppy!
I worry about that every summer! Good info!
Bob: Nope,probably wouldn't work out in Mizzou
Rey: You are welcome!
Mary: I haven't picked up my mail for almost a month because of all of our in town/out of town drama. Afraid my most recent commission check will be eaten up by our electric bill...j/k LOL
I can't help thinking. Las Vegas city has been around for many, many years.. when Air Conditioning was not an option. How did they survived in this climate? I believe that Swamp coolers was the most advanced one. But today we are not far from that, as A/C brakes down soo offten and good luck getting an A/C guy out to your house in the summer!
Renee,
Isn't a swamp cooler nothing more than a humidifier on steroids?
Reading this thread just gave me an idea for cooling off my basement. I have a small basement with the heating system there and our hot water comes from a coil installed in the boiler. This means it runs all year and because the basement is small and insulated, it stays pretty warm. I have a humidifier we use in the winter, I am going to try running it down there and see if it cools the basement down.
This is my first post here as I was just invited to join. I am very interested in the green building trend. I recently started performing energy audits as a part of my home inspection business. I have an infrared camera to use with this service. Fantastic device for locating energy loss.
Getting back to A/C. I posted a blog just recently on using A/C efficiently. The reason people pay higher electric bills when running their A/C is often lack of simple maintenance and misusing the system.
We used Swamp coolers in the dryer desert areas of Wyoming. There are some personal coolers that are self-contained that amazed me. I worked in a reformed warehouse with absolutely NO protection from the sun.
Now, we run our AC at about 80 deg. to keep the humidity under control in the house. My office is off the AC, so I have fans, including one in the door to pull cool air in. I bought a new box of filters this spring and keep them checked.
Closing blinds and curtains on the sun side helps.
In the 60's when my kids were little, my grandma found some personal coolers that we could load with ice or water. It was kind of like being in a pneumonia tent with cool humidity, but we just wanted something cool. The kids loved to have the cooler aimed at them at night.
July: WOW! I would love a whole house swamp cooler. I cannot believe it is that effective! Thanks for your input. Mine is just used to "supplement"
Arina: :wink:
James: I appreciate the link! The problem with electrical bills in the southwest is that we are still paying for the western "energy crisis" from 2000/2001. Utilities purchased power contracts and have damaged credit out here. Our rates are constantly rising. Thanks ENRON, bawk bawk.
JudyAnn: Thanks for the stories!
Renee,
Electricity prices in CT are constantly on the rise. One of the two large utilities here just raised their rates by over 47%! This State has a summertime electricity deficit of 700 megawatts. Where does the extra electricity come from? It is bought from the power grid at premium prices. This purchasing of electricity is partially the cause of the rate hikes.
So if you tune your A/C and the result is a 10% savings, that can be significant. More so as our electric bills become greater.