Evaporative cooler for mesa? (Phoenix, Tucson: house, maintenance, floor)

[nauxctrack]

https://m.costco.com/.product.100340...7_0626_HotBuys

Always used central ac unit but wondering if this would work to cool off our house enough, especially in July? Looking to save some money perhaps by setting our central to say 85-90 and utilizing this thing to it's full potential. How many years do they typically last?

[Hoonose]

That's a room A/C, not evap cooler!

[nauxctrack]

Lol sorry, ok well will this help any lowering my electricity bill?

[Hoonose]

I suspect it might if you locate yourself to the room cooled by it, and raise the temp of rest of the house.

[Troglodyte74]

I used to work for the world's largest manufacturer of evaporative coolers (there in Phoenix) and wrote technical articles for them. Evaporative coolers are effective up to about 93-95 degrees with low humidity - Tucson and Las Vegas are, technically speaking, "perfect" environments for evaporative coolers, and I spent the first 18 years of my life in Tucson with nothing but an evaporative cooler. However, their effectiveness declines rapidly with increased humidity, and July/August in Mesa would be a challenge. An evaporative cooler will certainly lower your electric bill to the extent you can use one. My town has been 105-107 in recent days (with very low humidity), and we've been extremely comfortable with a combination of the evaporative cooler, ceiling fans and one big floor fan. The floor fan is an incredible help.

Forgot to answer your longevity question. The evaporative cooler on my house is more than 15 years old, including the motor, and looks pretty much like the day it was installed. However, I spend about 7 hours in the spring and 7 hours in the fall keeping it that way. They are extremely primitive devices, little changed from what they were 75 years ago, and maintenance and repairs are very simple, do-it-yourself projects.

Good grief, now I realize you are really talking about a room A/C. I personally hate them - noisy, cumbersome, ineffective. Before I'd go that route, I'd try a couple of serious floor fans or a portable evaporative cooler.

[Hrothgar]

Originally Posted by Troglodyte74

I used to work for the world's largest manufacturer of evaporative coolers (there in Phoenix) and wrote technical articles for them. Evaporative coolers are effective up to about 93-95 degrees with low humidity - Tucson and Las Vegas are, technically speaking, "perfect" environments for evaporative coolers, and I spent the first 18 years of my life in Tucson with nothing but an evaporative cooler. However, their effectiveness declines rapidly with increased humidity, and July/August in Mesa would be a challenge. An evaporative cooler will certainly lower your electric bill to the extent you can use one. My town has been 105-107 in recent days (with very low humidity), and we've been extremely comfortable with a combination of the evaporative cooler, ceiling fans and one big floor fan. The floor fan is an incredible help.

Forgot to answer your longevity question. The evaporative cooler on my house is more than 15 years old, including the motor, and looks pretty much like the day it was installed. However, I spend about 7 hours in the spring and 7 hours in the fall keeping it that way. They are extremely primitive devices, little changed from what they were 75 years ago, and maintenance and repairs are very simple, do-it-yourself projects.

Good grief, now I realize you are really talking about a room A/C. I personally hate them - noisy, cumbersome, ineffective. Before I'd go that route, I'd try a couple of serious floor fans or a portable evaporative cooler.

This is golden. To add to it....

I have tried floor units including expensive ones and highly rated ones, put cold fridge water and ice cubes in them to get max coolness. I tried those in Utah where it is 20+ degrees cooler on average than Phoenix, in a small room closed off no less. Not a single unit including that one helped, not even 1 degree.

As for Mesa I have used a large wall unit Evap Cooler before in an 800 sq ft home. For most of the day in the summers it made the house a 90+ degree humid sauna each time I tried. What DID work however was if I used the AC to cool it down during the hottest points I could kick the cooler on around midnight and it would maintain the temp and several times drop the temp several degrees by morning. Not the best solution but definitely helped cut my electric bill in half, and made the bill dirt cheap 8 months outa the year!

[maverick974]

Originally Posted by Hrothgar

This is golden. To add to it....

I have tried floor units including expensive ones and highly rated ones, put cold fridge water and ice cubes in them to get max coolness. I tried those in Utah where it is 20+ degrees cooler on average than Phoenix, in a small room closed off no less. Not a single unit including that one helped, not even 1 degree.

As for Mesa I have used a large wall unit Evap Cooler before in an 800 sq ft home. For most of the day in the summers it made the house a 90+ degree humid sauna each time I tried. What DID work however was if I used the AC to cool it down during the hottest points I could kick the cooler on around midnight and it would maintain the temp and several times drop the temp several degrees by morning. Not the best solution but definitely helped cut my electric bill in half, and made the bill dirt cheap 8 months outa the year!

Sorry but I must disagree. You must be doing something wrong if you can't get a swamp cooler to work.
Here it is, almost July and I still haven't used my central AC. Even when it was 118 last week, my swampy kept my 2900 sf home under 80 and doing it for just under 6 cents per hour.
Best appliance I have in my house is my evap cooler.

[Hrothgar]

Disagree all you would like, the maximum capacity a Evap cooler has to cool a home is 20 degrees in optimum conditions. During a typical 112 degree day that put the temps at 92 degrees on high. A far cry from "keeping cool."

[Hoonose]

Originally Posted by Hrothgar

Disagree all you would like, the maximum capacity a Evap cooler has to cool a home is 20 degrees in optimum conditions. During a typical 112 degree day that put the temps at 92 degrees on high. A far cry from "keeping cool."

We had swampers 1984 until our last remodel in 2007. And used them through most Junes with temps commonly over 110. And some 120's. My wife would never tolerate anything over 78.

2 stage coolers even better.

As an example, in Las Vegas, Nevada, with a typical summer design day of 42 °C (108 °F) DB/19 °C (66 °F) WB or about 8% relative humidity, with 85% efficiency, the leaving air temperature of a residential cooler would be:

T l , d b {\displaystyle T_{l,db}} T_{{l,db}} = 42° – ((42° – 19°) x 85%) = 22.45 °C (72.41 °F)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evapor...ndirect-direct

[Pink Jazz]

Originally Posted by Hrothgar

Disagree all you would like, the maximum capacity a Evap cooler has to cool a home is 20 degrees in optimum conditions. During a typical 112 degree day that put the temps at 92 degrees on high. A far cry from "keeping cool."

This may be part of the reason why evaporative coolers are somewhat more common in the Tucson area than they are in the Phoenix area, since the Tucson area doesn't get into the 110s nearly as often as the Phoenix area.