Renting a house with No AC or Swamp Cooler -- Strategies on surviving. (Denver: 2014, apartment)

[jweb29]

how the hell do portable swamp coolers work? i just gotta turn them on inside? it confuses me. keep a window cracked? really?

Meh, I think i'll go for it!

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by jweb29

how the hell do portable swamp coolers work?

Uh, that was covered in Thermodynamics I in college.

[sheerbliss]

Originally Posted by Quietude

Can you live here without cooling? Sure.

Is it a lot easier in a house that has natural cooling like shade and low heat absorption? Yep.

Despite those who say they do without just fine, I find living without cooling to be enervated subsistence, long days where it's difficult to get much of anything done. Not really an alternative for most.

My parents' house had enough shade trees and bushes and was on a large enough lot (1/3 acre backing up to a large field) that the lack of a cooling system didn't matter. It never got hot.

My house, OTOH, didn't have a shade tree to the west, and was near the street on a small lot. Having the front yard planted with flowers and bushes helped--the air felt two or three degrees cooler by the sidewalk compared to the neighbors' houses--but it was miserably hot for a few weeks every year in July. I'd leave the doors open at night (I had security screen doors and patio gates) and sleep in the living room where it was cooler. I loved the fall: the house was cool and quiet at bedtime.

[davebarnes]

We survived for 24 years without cooling in this house and are still alive 7+ years later.

[BarryK123]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

We survived for 24 years without cooling in this house and are still alive 7+ years later.

But your sense of humor has been warped.

I'd rather have no heat than no AC.

[Quietude]

Yep, Dave, you've posted that pic more than once. It's obviously a house that could do without active cooling. I've lived in those. They're nice.

My house has shade for the first two hours after sunrise, and then could be used as a solar collector. No way to fix that issue, given the lay of the land and neighborhood. I bought it with no cooling and got through late summer and winter just fine, then found the first warm day last April to be completely intolerable. Dropped everything and installed an evap cooler, which works wonderfully and only cost me about $25 a month to run.

We'll all look for a massively shaded house next time, 'kay? But it's an apples-and-oranges comparison otherwise.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by Quietude

Yep, Dave, you've posted that pic more than once. It's obviously a house that could do without active cooling. I've lived in those. They're nice.

You mean compared to our current modern house that "requires" AC?


On the other hand, my Depression-era born parents lived in a house in New England for 56 years with no cooling. Summers were miserable in that house. They survived quite well because they were cheap. Once they moved into the old folks' home with AC, they only lived a very short time. Coincidence?

[Quietude]

Lovely shade of orange on that one.

[Norrov]

Originally Posted by jweb29

I decided it is not time for me personally to buy.

So I am renting. I caught my eye on a nice split-level home! It is PERFECT, in sloans lake, close to the city....

No cooling however.

I am wondering what are things to look out for if there is no cooling, and if I could get by with a small window unit or 2. Or perhaps a portable swamp cooler?

Grew up with No A/C and didn’t have it until last year in my own house. It’s unbearable like 2 weeks of the year here. Just open your windows and buy a fan, or enjoy the outdoors when it’s hot.

It’s Denver, not Houston.

[Quietude]

Originally Posted by Norrov

Grew up with No A/C and didn’t have it until last year in my own house. It’s unbearable like 2 weeks of the year here. Just open your windows and buy a fan, or enjoy the outdoors when it’s hot.

It’s Denver, not Houston.

It's unbearable a lot more than two weeks of the year. But if you've got a shaded house and are at work most of the daylight hours, I guess it seems bearable.

It's also not going to get any cooler here, nor summer any shorter.