Swamp coolers instead of air conditioning being installed in some new construction homes

[AZjeff]

The search implied very little difference between a swamp cooler and a air conditioner.

A cooler works well when the humidity is low but the difference between outside air temp and coolered air temp decreases as RH increases. After a summer thunderstorm when the temp spikes back up and it's really humid out and you really need cooling you don't get it. After 2 summers of only a swamp cooler I stopped putting water in it and only ran the blower early in the morning to draw in cool air then shut it off and used 2 window shaker AC units. Better than nothing at all and cheaper to run but there are multiple reasons they aren't standard equipment on new houses.

This is what's in a swamp cooler. To keep one running properly you're on the roof at least once a month.

@GON, I'd love to hear your thoughts after a season with a swamp cooler in Arizona. And your wife's thoughts.

 

[DwightFrye]

I lived in several homes in Sou Cal that had swamp coolers. One was on the roof and blew the air down through a regular duct system to all the rooms in the house. Others were window units. None of them worked as well as a real air conditioner.

I can't tell you how much I hated them. The always seemed like a ghetto solution. On a new construction house, properly built and insulated and using all the modern energy efficient windows, etc. I wouldn't stand for a minute with a builder putting a swamp cooler on the house.

 

[UncleDave]

I lived in several homes in Sou Cal that had swamp coolers. One was on the roof and blew the air down through a regular duct system to all the rooms in the house. Others were window units. None of them worked as well as a real air conditioner.

I can't tell you how much I hated them. The always seemed like a ghetto solution. On a new construction house, properly built and insulated and using all the modern energy efficient windows, etc. I wouldn't stand for a minute with a builder putting a swamp cooler on the house.

So cal is going to be real hit and miss on a swamper. Certainly not as well as Az.

All the places I've had them also had AC, either central or multiple window shakers.

To get good performance out of them they cant really be used stand alone, but must be part of a series of units inside a house.

A downdraft setup like you describe only works well with something like air kings, or box fans pulling at each end of the house, or even each room.
Air kings are certainly less ghetto than a bunch of box, fans, but yeah the whole thing has just a bit of "cobb house" quality to it.

I had a River house that had a ground mount unit that would come in through the garage and go all the way through the house and pull out through a whole house fan in the kitchen cooling the attic at night as well.

 

[Dinoburner]

Surprised no one has mentioned Legionnaires disease in swamp coolers.

 

[AZjeff]

The older houses here with coolers usually have them distributing air through the furnace ductwork. Since almost all houses are on slabs the furnaces are in the attic or on the roof or in a closet like a mobile home furnace and the ductwork is in the attic with the registers blowing down from the ceiling. Our 1985 house only had a cooler on the roof and there was no evidence of window AC units in use before we bought it in 2005. Some people over the years convert to AC or add AC into the duct work. I looked into it in that house and because it was an electric furnace in a closet the conversion was painfully expensive and intrusive to install. Window shakers got the job done.