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Swamp coolers

Rickter | Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on May 22, 2002 07:18am

I am considering using a swamp cooler in my house and was wondering if anyone has experience with or advice on wheither I can duct it into my existing furnice system so I can distribute the cool throughout the house. Would the higher humidity cause a problem?

     Thanks for any input.

Rick

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  1. LisaWL | May 22, 2002 08:09pm | #1

    Where do you live - how hot does it get there?

    "A completed home is a listed home."

    1. Rickter | May 23, 2002 05:13pm | #2

      I live in Billings Mt. the summers can get to 100 degrees. My concern is wiether the higher humidity could cause any problems with my existing heat distribution system if I duct it through it.

      Rick

      1. TLRice | May 24, 2002 03:01pm | #3

        I looked up the design conditions for Billings and they are very similar to where I work and live. A swamp cooler, there, as here, is a bad idea, ducted or not.

        1. DonaldH | May 24, 2002 04:12pm | #4

          Please elaborate a bit more.    I am planing on building a place south of Livingston  and was thinking of using swamp coolers.    Its a pretty dry area in the summer time, and the wet-bulb temperature seemed favorable for evaporative cooling.    Here is a web site that talks a bit about appropriateness of evaporative cooling in different areas:

             http://www.homeenergy.org/archive/hem.dis.anl.gov/eehem/96/960511

          Billings looked ok.

          A few of our friends in Livingston swear by the portable units.     Would be very interested in hearing a counter viewpoint.   

          Don

          Edited 5/24/2002 9:21:51 AM ET by DonH

          1. LisaWL | May 24, 2002 07:18pm | #5

            My experience with swamp coolers is that when outside temps are over 95 degrees they no longer cool the air.  We live in Sacramento, California and had a swamp cooler for 8 years.  When it really got hot we turned it off because the hot, humid air was worse than hot, dry air.  With the cooler on one day, it was 112 inside my house (exterior temps the same).

            "A completed home is a listed home."

          2. outside | May 24, 2002 09:12pm | #6

            I grew up in Southern New Mexico. During college I lived in an 11'x40' mobile home in the desert south of Las Cruces. The motor on the swamp cooler died the week I moved in. The landlord said to replace the motor and she would deduct the cost from the rent. I installed the biggest motor I could find and wired it on high. The cooler would keep that little metal box in the desert comfortable on even the hottest days. Lisa L.'s problems in Sacremento must have been on days with relatively high humidity. (It doesn't take much to seriously degrade the performance of a swamp cooler).

          3. Don | May 25, 2002 02:41am | #7

            Scott:  Hey, There, fellow Aggie.  I went to grad school at NMSU a lifetime ago (1961-63).  Lived in a college housing unit on Espina, directly across the street from the cattle feed lot.  Can still vividly recall the pungent odor of cow poop when the wind came through the window panes during a good spring windstorm.  Good old swamp cooler kept that little sucker so comfy it was pitiful.  I can remember summer days when the temp equaled the IQ of the dept head and the humidity equaled some of my test scores on grad math - swamp cooler worked like a champ.

            DonThe GlassMasterworks - If it scratches, I etch it!

          4. Wet_Head | May 27, 2002 06:51am | #10

            Impossible unless your swamp cooler was not working or the humidity was extremely high.  They do cool very well way above 95 degrees unless the former also applies.  Now if it is 120 on the roog your incoming may wel be 100 degrees but it is still cooling some.  Something isn't kosher about your tale.

            PS. I am not a big fan of evaporative coolers myslef but couldn't let this misinformation go unchallenged.

          5. LisaWL | May 27, 2002 07:16am | #11

            I can't tell you why it happened but it did happen several times.  It does get humid here sometimes as we are between two major rivers.  If the water on the roof is over 110 degrees, then blowing hot air through it isn't going to provide much cooling.  And when counteracted by heat produced within the house (lights, dishwasher, dryer, oven, hot sweaty people, whatever), the effects of that minimal cooling could easily be overpowered.  After a few years we figured out that whenever it got over around 95, no discernable cooling occured from the swamp cooler.  We probably needed more than one swamp cooler for the house.

            "A completed home is a listed home."

          6. Agatized | May 28, 2002 01:19am | #12

            Lisa,

            Sacramento is very humid compared the desert.  Its not surprising that a swamp cooler will not work in that area.  Out here in the CA desert, I usually have summer humidity in the single digits.  When the humidity outside gets up above about 25%, the swamp cooler doesn't seem to work as well.  Normally I get about 30 deg F across my cooler.  As a side note, I have noticed that wind chill doesn't seem to work at over 110 deg F.

            The other thing to realize is that swamp cooling depends on moving a lot of air past the pads.  Normally this requires oversized ducting to be efficient.  If the heating ducts are normal sized they probably will not work well with the swamp cooler.

            Erich 

          7. LisaWL | May 28, 2002 02:34am | #13

            Thanks Erich.  When people say "high" or "low" humidity, I've never been sure what that means in numbers.  I know that the average humidity in the summer here is around 75% in the morning and 30% in the afternoon.  I haven't been able to find record numbers anywhere, but if those are the averages then we know there are days that are a lot more humid than that.  And when those coincide with a heat wave, where it gets down to the low 70's at night and up over 100 during the day for a week or two, the only thing to do is to turn on the air conditioner or jump into the pool!  Sounds like swamp coolers work much better in desert areas.  (Our swamp cooler had no ducting.  There was a hole in the ceiling in the central hall; the cooler sat on top of it and blew all the "cool" air into the hall.)

            "A completed home is a listed home."

          8. Pd5190 | May 28, 2002 08:24am | #14

            Two important points about swamp coolers and one of them has been touched on and that is the humidity. In the southwest where the humidity is in single digits or under 20 percent they'll work just fine. As humidity climbs there ability to cool is reduced.  The second point is the house must be vented A window opened at the other end of the house allows the cooled air to be drawn through the house. If this is not done the effectiveness of the cooler is greatly diminished. 

          9. Rickter | May 26, 2002 05:46pm | #8

            Thanks for the link Don. Theres some great information there. Best of luck on your home.

            Rick

          10. ahneedhelp | May 26, 2002 06:04pm | #9

            My impresson over the years is swamp coolers (or evaporative tower) are most effective in very dry and hot regions such as Arizona and New Mexico. Utah and Nevada as well as some parts of Texas may also fit this description.

            I believe there was an article on this type of system in one of the older FH issues. I recall a good illustration on the setup.

            Alan

          11. TLRice | May 28, 2002 02:58pm | #15

            Don,

            I don't have any design data for Livingston, but you mentioned Billings. The Design conditions (0.4% ASHRAE Cooling and Dehumidification Design Conditions - US, 27.15, 2001) are 93 degF DB (dry bulb and 63 degF WB (wetbulb). That's a lot drier (about 17% rh) than I thought ( I think I read the wrong conditions) when I had originally posted a response to your question.

            Tim

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