Do people use swamp coolers near Washington DC?

[davidm]

I had an uncle who lived in Palm Desert CA. He had both a swamp cooler and an AC unit. The AC was for times when it was too hot for the swamp cooler to provide sufficient cooling.

I’m not sure if it was some sort of dual unit or two seperate systems.

[nightshadea]

heh as a current almost 30+ year so cal desert dweller I can say they don’t work all that great … you need ceiling fans to survive … it reached 90 today …

[nightshadea]

@Mr_Downtown

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.

actually in Laughlin nv some houses have these big clear water pipes running along the roof of the house …my cousin who moved there found out its so warm there that a lot of people don’t have a water heater … the water sits in the pipe warming up until ya turn the hot water on and ya don’t have to wait …

[busterpickle]

Simply too much humidity during the none winter months. I have a townhouse and to keep the humidity in the basement in check I have a dehumidifier set to 45%. It more or less runs non-stop from late-February to late-November.

In case people are wondering, I have a water hose connected to it to constantly drain.

Side note: that extra energy is totally worth it IMO in regards to comfort in the house and the A/C system seems to do a better job with it being more or less 50% versus 85% plus humidity.

[Mama_Zappa]

@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 <highway number>” is a strictly California thing. We don’t use “the” with highway numbers around here.

I’m also in the greater DC area, and I’ve never heard of them around here. As others have said, it’s just too humid around here for them to work well.

I have several friends who live in Phoenix, Arizona, which would seem to be an ideal location for a swamp cooler, but they don’t have them either.

And oh yeah on the “the” highway. I remember first spotting that in an episode of the X-Files, where Mulder referred to something off of an exit of “the 95”, and I’ve since noticed in other shows and movies.