I remember living in a concrete open squad bay style barracks during the 80’s that was in the Mojave Desert. There was no air conditioning in the barracks, but they had as I recall something called ‘swamp coolers’ affixed to the ceiling. My recollection was they were not terribly good at cooling and seemed to reduce interior temperatures only a few degrees. It was still uncomfortably hot in the squad bay.
I mention this because Mrs. Cardigan is talking about getting an window mounted air conditioner for our son’s bedroom. I grumbled a bit at the prices of the units she was looking at, but then she comes back telling me she’s found another ‘solution’. Get him a portable swamp cooler. The unit IS inexpensive and is only 40 some dollars, but we live in Michigan and I don’t think a swamp cooler is going to work at all - it’s pretty humid here throughout much of the summers.
Anyone have a swamp cooler in their home? Any idea if one would be at all effective in Michigan? My instincts say no way, but will post the question in case others have had different experiences.
First, swamp coolers only work well at all in arid environments. They’d be hopeless in Michigan.
Second, those small, cheap, portable ones you see advertised don’t work very well even in arid environments. They’re slightly better than an ordinary fan if you have them pointed directly at your face, but for a whole room, they’re hopeless.
Swamp coolers cool the air through evaporation. But that can only happen if the air is relatively dry. If the air already has too much water in it, then the water in the swamp cooler won’t evaporate and it won’t cool the air. If anything, it will make the air a bit more humid. Making the hot Michigan air more humid is definitely not something you want. To cool the room, you’ll need to use a traditional AC.
The physics of heating, cooling, and (de-)humidification are relentless. It’s been decades if not centuries since there’s been any more science to exploit. Any breakthroughs now are solely in marketing.
The OP’s only real solution is a window A/C unit sized for the actual cubic footage of the room and desired temperature change, plus a generous (WAG 50%) margin. All else is falling for a semi-scam.
If cost is a concern, you might be able to get a deal on an AC at a thrift store or online marketplace like Craigslist. Being the winter, some people may be looking to sell ones that they got for temporary use during the summer. For instance, if their AC broke in August, they may have gotten a window AC to hold them over until they could get their main AC fixed. Of course, buying used comes with its own risks. If you don’t have much experience with window ACs, you might ask a friend to come along to look at the used ones so they can evaluate how well they are working.
When looking at room ACs, you’ll generally find two types: window and portable. Just stick to window ACs. Portable ACs are not very efficient and don’t cool as well as window ACs.
If you get a window AC for his room, the room will need to be closed off from the rest of the house. If the door is open, then the cool air will be diluted throughout the house. If the rest of the house has open windows, then any cool air that leaves his room will be lost to the outside.
My freshman year in college the place I lived had a swamp cooler. I got a lung infection and it was pretty much as sick as I have ever been. I cannot say for certain but I am almost positive it was because of the swamp cooler which I doubt had been cleaned in years (read tens of years).
Here all this time I thought the title term referred to the largest cooler you could buy, into which you could pack all the beer/Coke/etc. your little heart desired.
Arizona is prime swamper country, and we’re not dying in droves from Legionaire’s Disease, thank you very much. Some older houses with poorer people here don’t even have A/C, even today. We’ve had one in our house for 25 years, hoooked into the main ducts, and I wouldn’t do without it. We only run the A/C when the temps get above 105ish (a swamp cooler will reallly only drop the temp about 25 degrees max).
Those that hate swamp coolers should investigate industrial sized business A/C. You think they just cool the air with refrigerant? It would cost too much. It’s a multistaged process, and one stage is evaporative cooling the air.
Fair enough. I should have more clearly stated that my uninformed opinion was that they seemed likely to be spreaders of spores and bacteria. I actually have no clue if they do or not.
All the buildings on the Navy base in Lemoore, CA, which is in an arid part of central CA, had swamp coolers. They were a PITA for maintenance and there were often black widows nesting in them. They’re really pretty ineffective, IMO. We lived in west Africa, which is about as hot and arid as I ever want it to be, and all our buildings had split AC units.
Best you’re going to do is get to about 5 °F above the wet bulb temperature. If it’s 85 °F and 70% RH, wet bulb is 77 °F. Evaporative cooling isn’t going to help there.
Window ACs have gotten much cheaper to buy and operate, no longer the luxury I remember growing up.
The benefit of swamp coolers comes from their lower purchase and operating costs. But they have significant limitations. They only work in dry climates and they can only drop the temp by 10-30 degrees depending on the humidity level of the outside air. They work well in the dry Southwest. But even there, if the temp is really high or there’s a humid spell, they may not be sufficient. In a humid place like Michigan, they shouldn’t even be an option since the humidity is too high
If the air temperature is not a problem, you might consider a dehumidifier. They can cost somewhat less than a window A/C, but the downside is you have to empty the water and clean the unit religiously.
They run cool. Too cool for Legionella, and too cool for most stuff.
Home units here now purge entirely when they switch off. I guess that’s a good idea for maintenance reasons, but since they run cool, and dry out when not in use, I don’t know that it was any kind of health problem.
Our heat-pump AC gets a bit manky when running, but that’s condensate. Never had that problem with a swamp cooler
FWIW my freshman year was at Arizona State University and that is where I got sick from a swamp cooler. Properly maintained they are likely fine. I am nearly positive ours was not (rented place) and who knows what was growing in there? I definitely got a lung infection and was very sick there for a bit. Maybe I picked up whatever it was somewhere else but I spent most of my time there under that swamp cooler. It really is the most likely culprit. Avoided them since and that seems to be working for me beyond the occasional cold/flu.
If you want to roll the dice knock yourself out. I will not. That really sucked.
ETA: I asked my AI and it gave the answer linked below. Short version is yes, swamp coolers can absolutely spread pathogens including Legionnaire’s disease. Maintain them well and they are almost certainly reasonably safe. Don’t and who knows what muck is being sprayed into the air you breathe?