I think in the humid south this is not a viable options.  It would just be even more sticky.  Although we don't seem to have any humdity this year because of the drought.    

We use to live in Colorado and now live in Texas.  I often chuckle when my clients are filling out their seller's disclosures and come to the do they have a swamp cooler section.  I always tell them I'm sure you don't and then describe what they are.  With close to 100% humidity we definitely don't want to put more humidity in to our air.

Great info Renee.  Our AC broke last year on the hottest day of the year.  It did take almost a week for them to get it fixed and we pretty much lived in the basement until then. 

If I lived in a dry climate I would certainly go for the swamp cooler.  We had one in El Paso and it used about $35 in electricty per month.  I can't understand why people want cold A/C where swamp coolers are just as effective and much more energy efficient.  Not to mention quite a bit cheaper!  As an aside, when we were 12 days then 8 days without electricty in 04, it didn't bother us a bit not to have A/C. Funny how we can adapt in such a short period of time!

Terry Haugen - STAGE it RIGHT!

And good luck getting an A/C guy out to your house in the summer!  Sam's Club also sells portable units, for around $300. I bought one last year, and it comes in handy when there is a lot of people in the house.  Swamp coolers work pretty well out here too. -Charles

Hi Rene,

Swamp coolers bring back a lot of childhood memories for me. My family had the only air conditioner (swamp) in the neighborhood and when the valley temps would reach 100 degrees, all the neighbors would come over to get cool. They are noisy and blow a lot of air from their vent but they are better than nothing, that is for sure!

Now back to the dog licking the ice cream cone...is that your dog? That is one happy dog. 

That is just a gross picture Renee!  Who is that sharing their ice cream with their DOG??  BLECH

Blue Ridge Real Estate:  Probably not an option, you are correct!

Marchel:  LOL!  Coming from Nebraska, hadn't a clue what a swamp cooler was!

Steve:  Miss that from when I lived in Neb.  When we needed a respite, the basement was where it was!

Terry:  I cannot believe all the benefits of a swamp cooler!  It is amazing:  not only is it less expensive but it helps your wood furniture, skin, etc!

Charles:  I even think we can drag the bad boy outside for parties to help cool an area underneath our patio.  Have you tried that and does it work?  Thanks for adding Sam's Club, I am a Costco gal and couldn't find them there!

Sheron:  Definitely better than nothing!  Our room is always a nightmare to cool (faces west towards the setting sun) and we have been using it (post AC getting fixed) overnight and the room now stays cool all day long!  Yes that is my dog discovering ice cream for the first time!

Christina:  That is my husband who is a nutjob for his puppy! 

Here in Missouri I would think that it would be too humid, but the idea of a basement is a lot cooler than just one floor up. During the power outage that we suffered here in St. Louis last summer....oh that's right, none of you guys heard about it from the national media because we aren't NYC or LA....anyway, we went 10 days without power. The basement is the only thing that saved us! Bob Mitchell ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

I worry about that every summer!  Good info!

Hi Renee...our a/c and heating unit (all in one) went out November...THANK GOD....I'd rather have winter without heat than this 110 degree weather without an a/c.  We were very fortunate in that our home warranty, which we kept up after the initial 1 year, paid for most of it.  They did get it replaced within a week but we did fine...just bundled up.  We've never used swamp coolers...I'm going to have to look into them...last summer our a/c bill ran $300 to $350...we haven't got our first bill since it's reallly gotten hot, I fear that this months may be close to $400.

Bob:  Nope,probably wouldn't work out in Mizzou

Rey:  You are welcome!

Mary:  I haven't picked up my mail for almost a month because of all of our in town/out of town drama.  Afraid my most recent commission check will be eaten up by our electric bill...j/k LOL 

My husband installed a Swamp Cooler in our home but it is a commercial sized one. It cools the house down really well! We have a 2 story 3000 square foot home and it cools the whole thing down. There are times I come home from work and it is 67 degrees downstairs and I have to turn it off and put on a sweater. The only time we can not use it is when it gets humid. But my power bill last month was $150.00. It saves a lot of money!

I can't help thinking. Las Vegas city has been around for many, many years.. when Air Conditioning was not an option. How did they survived in this climate? I believe that Swamp coolers was the most advanced one. But today we are not far from that, as A/C brakes down soo offten and good luck getting an A/C guy out to your house in the summer!

Renee,

Isn't a swamp cooler nothing more than a humidifier on steroids?

Reading this thread just gave me an idea for cooling off my basement. I have a small basement with the heating system there and our hot water comes from a coil installed in the boiler. This means it runs all year and because the basement is small and insulated, it stays pretty warm. I have a humidifier we use in the winter, I am going to try running it down there and see if it cools the basement down.

This is my first post here as I was just invited to join. I am very interested in the green building trend. I recently started performing energy audits as a part of my home inspection business. I have an infrared camera to use with this service. Fantastic device for locating energy loss.

Getting back to A/C. I posted a blog just recently on using A/C efficiently. The reason people pay higher electric bills when running their A/C is often lack of simple maintenance and misusing the system.

We used Swamp coolers in the dryer desert areas of Wyoming.  There are some personal coolers that are self-contained that amazed me.  I worked in a reformed warehouse with absolutely NO protection from the sun.

Now, we run our AC at about 80 deg. to keep the humidity under control in the house.  My office is off the AC, so I have fans, including one in the door to pull cool air in.   I bought a new box of filters this spring and keep them checked.

Closing blinds and curtains on the sun side helps.

In the 60's when my kids were little, my grandma found some personal coolers that we could load with ice or water.  It was kind of like being in a pneumonia tent with cool humidity, but we just wanted something cool. The kids loved to have the cooler aimed at them at night.

July:  WOW!  I would love a whole house swamp cooler.  I cannot believe it is that effective!  Thanks for your input.  Mine is just used to "supplement"

Arina:  :wink: 

James:  I appreciate the link!  The problem with electrical bills in the southwest is that we are still paying for the western "energy crisis" from 2000/2001.  Utilities purchased power contracts and have damaged credit out here.  Our rates are constantly rising.  Thanks ENRON, bawk bawk.

JudyAnn:  Thanks for the stories! 

I've never heard of evaporative cooling.  But that's probable because it is so humid here that no one can use it.  I'm glad you had it available when your AC went down!

Renee,

Electricity prices in CT are constantly on the rise. One of the two large utilities here just raised their rates by over 47%! This State has a summertime electricity deficit of 700 megawatts. Where does the extra electricity come from? It is bought from the power grid at premium prices. This purchasing of electricity is partially the cause of the rate hikes.

So if you tune your A/C and the result is a 10% savings, that can be significant. More so as our electric bills become greater.