### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2018, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-use-swamp-coolers-near-washington-dc/812025/8 "2018-04-09T00:32:51Z")
Just a off subject which relates to the TV show taking place in a different place then the show tells, a TV crew for a show like law and order rented out a house on Long Island, NY to do a quick intro of a drug find (IIRC), they placed palm trees to make it appear like somewhere in Florida. My dad got some money for allowing them to use his driveway for parking. So such thing happen.
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### Author:  [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2018, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-use-swamp-coolers-near-washington-dc/812025/9 "2018-04-09T01:34:13Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> I won’t say that they don’t exist at all, because someone theoretically might have one, but I personally have never seen a swamp cooler on a house anywhere in the Maryland/DC/Virginia area.
>
> Do they refer to the Beltway as “the 495” on the show? I’ve seen that on some shows. For you Californians, your “the \” is a strictly California thing. We don’t use “the” with highway numbers around here.
More true in CA than other places perhaps, but I grew up in Western NY and remember hearing “the 90, the 33, the 198” in addition to “the thruway, the X parkway, etc.”
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### Author:  [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2018, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-use-swamp-coolers-near-washington-dc/812025/10 "2018-04-09T03:44:43Z")
My father was persuaded by a cousin recently returned from New Mexico to try a swamp cooler. In hot and humid East Texas.
I was a teenager before I learned that potato chips were normally crispy.
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2018, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-use-swamp-coolers-near-washington-dc/812025/11 "2018-04-09T04:20:27Z")
We tried a swamp cooler for a while – in Northern Virginia, near DC. Exactly as you suspect, the poor thing labored away, but the ambient humidity rendered it ineffective.
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2018, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-use-swamp-coolers-near-washington-dc/812025/12 "2018-04-09T09:42:12Z")
I had to Google swamp cooler.
But in doing so, I found this relevant [map](https://www.google.com/search?q=swamp+cooler&client=firefox-b-1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJgenp8qzaAhVi9IMKHcFmBfYQ_AUICygC&biw=1366&bih=603#imgrc=njXSg7zQ-sMLpM:).
mmm
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### Author:  [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2018, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-use-swamp-coolers-near-washington-dc/812025/13 "2018-04-09T10:32:59Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> I was watching a TV show that takes place in the area around Washington, DC (DC, Virginia, etc.). There was a house with a swamp cooler on the roof and I thought, ‘Ha! Not only does the landscape look more like Santa Clarita than Virginia, they don’t use swamp coolers in humid climates!’
Was it Bones by any chance? That show had the worst continuity I’ve ever seen.
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### Author:  [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2018, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-use-swamp-coolers-near-washington-dc/812025/14 "2018-04-09T11:30:15Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#):
>
> I had to Google swamp cooler.
>
> But in doing so, I found this relevant [map](https://www.google.com/search?q=swamp+cooler&client=firefox-b-1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJgenp8qzaAhVi9IMKHcFmBfYQ_AUICygC&biw=1366&bih=603#imgrc=njXSg7zQ-sMLpM:).
> mmm
Nope:
[www.google.com](http://www.google.com) search?q=swamp+cooler&client=firefox-b-1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJgenp8qzaAhVi9IMKHcFmBfYQ\_AUICygC&biw=1366&bih=603#imgrc=njXSg7zQ-sMLpM:"
Google search shows me different pictures than it shows you. (And I can see you use Firefox!)
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### Author:  [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2018, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-use-swamp-coolers-near-washington-dc/812025/15 "2018-04-09T11:36:29Z")
I’ve lived in the Washington DC / Norther Virginia area for about 20 years now, and I’d never even heard of them, after shopping for and owning two homes.
After reading about Swamp Coolers, it’s way too humid here for them.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2018, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-use-swamp-coolers-near-washington-dc/812025/16 "2018-04-09T14:11:14Z")
Thanks for the answers, everyone. As a former desert-dweller, I’m familiar with swamp coolers. I suspect the location scouts on the show are from the coast and/or they had refrigerated air conditioning and didn’t know they don’t work in humidity. If they noticed the big box on the roof at all, they probably thought it was an air conditioner.
> [@Ravenman](#):
>
> Was it Bones by any chance? That show had the worst continuity I’ve ever seen.
_NCIS_.
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2018, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-use-swamp-coolers-near-washington-dc/812025/17 "2018-04-09T14:56:46Z")
Asked & answered. So now: home-made [evaporative coolers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJN3lwVLGxs)!
I only add this because if you’ve never lived where they are, you’re likely wondering what all the fuss is about. I paid about $750 for a medium sized unit that cools the entire house and raises the humidity nicely. It costs peanuts to operate–it’s just an electric fan and a negligible trickle of water. As a bonus, you can run it in nice weather without the water feature and just air out the house in a couple of minutes. Compared to about $5,000 to add AC to a forced air system, plus another $100/month to run it, and no fresh air.
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### Author:  [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2018, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-use-swamp-coolers-near-washington-dc/812025/18 "2018-04-09T15:25:07Z")
Wasn’t the plan to _drain_ the swamp, not _cool_ the swamp?
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2018, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-use-swamp-coolers-near-washington-dc/812025/19 "2018-04-09T17:07:44Z")
There is a swamp cooler of sorts (it’s a windcatcher with an ice bucket) on the roof of Mount Vernon. Does that count?
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### Author:  [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2018, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-use-swamp-coolers-near-washington-dc/812025/20 "2018-04-10T03:58:13Z")
My brother-in-law noticed that even new homes in the Las Vegas area commonly have their central air conditioning units mounted on the roof. I’ve proposed two theories: 1) that it’s because that’s where the swamp coolers were back in the day; and 2) that perhaps it prevents desert snakes from crawling inside at night for warmth.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-use-swamp-coolers-near-washington-dc/812025.md?page=2)