Would you buy new house that has no A/C? (Denver: broker, water heater)

[formercalifornian]

Our house was very comfortable yesterday, and we ran the fan only briefly at sundown, although I agree with the previous poster that it depends on the house.

[Brian_M]

Originally Posted by 80skeys

Yeah right. If you want to be 10 degrees cooler than the outside air, okay... they're effective. However if you want to feel like there's a real difference between the temperature inside your house versus the temp outside, then no they're not.

So it hit 98/99 degrees here yesterday. At noon, my house was heating up (nothing on, blinds and windows closed)... I pre-wet the pads for a few minutes, then turned my swamp cooler on low. Within 10 minutes, the house temp had dropped 2* and after an hour, hour and a half or so (right about the time the temperature peaked), my house was at 70*. When the cloud cover hit, my house went to 68* and I turned it off for awhile.

I was, very clearly, being cooled WAY more than just 10* from ambient outside air temps.



I'm much too cheap to get off the $7k+ to have A/C installed PLUS the monthly bill to run it, but I sure do like the feeling of A/C. The swamp cooler does about 80% as well (and I appreciate having "fresh" air circulating through the house vs. the old staleness that A/C often provides)

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by mariafraietta

It's not that expensive to add AC here; especially in a newer home. I don't know how much your earnest money is, but don't lose it over AC!! On a typical 2000 sf newer home it'll cost you around 3-4K to add AC. I'd wait to see if you need it; you may be just fine without it. Live in the house for a year first and see which of the above-mentioned ideas will work for you!

We got a quote last year, and it was higher than that, which was addressed in a later post. Also, the equipment was going to take up a big chunk of our side yard. We didn't do it; last summer was not that hot, so we didn't have the motivation to drop that kind of money. Now we're looking at a swamp cooler. We do have a big room A/C in the kitchen that we turn on when it gets uncomfortable in the house.

Originally Posted by xeric

It was tongue-in-cheek. However, thinking about it some more, I can see a disadvantage to having central air and never using it. You'd have to keep it in good repair for the day that you might sell the house and that could cost more over a long period of time then it would potentially add to the home's value. I wonder if you can sell used central AC units?

Well, you have a point, but everyone I know who has A/C uses it, at least part of the time in summer.
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Your actual "need" for A/C depends on many things; how well the house is insulated, the siting of the house (my friend has a house w/the exact floor plan as mine, built within a year or two of mine, but hers faces E/W and mine faces N/S; mine stays much cooler), and whether you're home a lot during the day (or not). As an aside, I thought most newer houses had CAC? No?

[OneMoreMove]

Originally Posted by 80skeys

Yeah right. If you want to be 10 degrees cooler than the outside air, okay... they're effective. However if you want to feel like there's a real difference between the temperature inside your house versus the temp outside, then no they're not.

If you are interested in any real information about the effectiveness of swamp coolers, there are lots of sources. Here's one that discusses the whole thing and has some numbers on the potential cooling that a cooler can bring. It depends on the humidity, but Colorado is considered a good place to use a swamp cooler since it's so dry.

[80skeys]

Originally Posted by OneMoreMove

If you are interested in any real information about the effectiveness of swamp coolers, there are lots of sources. Here's one that discusses the whole thing and has some numbers on the potential cooling that a cooler can bring.

"Potential cooling" ... I love it.

[OneMoreMove]

Originally Posted by 80skeys

"Potential cooling" ... I love it.

The reason it says potential cooling is because that chart shows the amount of cooling that the evaporation can bring based on the temperature and humidity - it doesn't account for how much air is being pushed through the evaporative cooler, which is the key factor in how much cooling will occur.

That's why you measure evap coolers in CFM - cubic feet per minute that is pushes through the pads. The actual cooling of the air on the output of the cooler is determined by the outside temperature and humidity, but if it only pushes 10 CFM it won't even cool a phone booth.

Are you actually claiming that evaporative coolers don't work? They don't work at all like an AC unit, but you seem to think that they don't work at all and that the hundreds of thousands of units humming away every night don't actually do anything.

Do you deny the physics? Conspiracy theory? Is the government behind this, because they are recommending them (http://www.energy.gov/news/archives/1652.htm - broken link), too, and even giving rebates (http://www.xcelenergy.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/docs/EnergyUpdate-CO.pdf - broken link) for people who buy them. They must be part of an elaborate scam where millions of people testify that the swamp coolers work, but you know better

Or do you just hate swamp coolers? That would make more sense - a lot of people don't like the humid air. Like them or not, they do cool the air very well under the right circumstances.

[gn3]

Yes I would. Try it for a few years and see how you do without it. It's certainly nice a few weeks out of the year, but lots of homes don't have it. For that reason, I wouldn't be tremendously concerned about resale value. All you need is to find someone who likes the home for the same reasons you do and also doesn't care greatly about the AC issue.

As others have mentioned if you find the heat a problem despite doing the obvious things (open windows at night, run window fans, close windows and blinds while gone during the day), an attic fan or maybe cooling the hottest rooms with non-central AC might be a solution.

I'm in CO Springs - granted it's a bit cooler than Denver - but we only turn our AC on a few days a year. I view it as a liability rather than an asset, honestly.

[mczabe]

Absolutely not. Seems to be the minority vote on here - but I'm voting anyway!

To me, there is a huge difference between using your A/C all the time and having the option to use it. It also may have to do with living in so many NJ homes with window units. NEVER again!!!

And since several members of my family are plagued by seasonal allergies, we need to be able to keep the house cool/fresh while keeping the pollen out.

[OneMoreMove]

In NJ, life without an A/C can be pretty rough. In Denver, pretty easy!

[mczabe]

Originally Posted by OneMoreMove

In NJ, life without an A/C can be pretty rough. In Denver, pretty easy!

I stand by my vote.