Swamp Coolers’ Ability to Beat the Heat is Evaporating in Record Southwestern [US] Temperatures
Swamp Coolers’ Ability to Beat the Heat is Evaporating in Record Southwestern Temperatures - Inside Climate News
Idk why this is a news article. Everyone knows anything about this knows that evaporative coolers have a hard cooling limit at the wet bulb temperature and will perform poorly in high relative humidity environments and hot outside temps. They're not magic. We've known this limitation for hundreds of years at this point.
Sure but you can buy them on amazon for like 20 bucks making them an impulse purchase for people who don't know how they work and aren't interested in doing the research, so then they just assume it's magic and get upset when it doesn't work.
yeah, this is just physics. To overly simplify, swamp coolers alone cannot move the indoor climate to a comfortable state if the baseline temperature is above 40 deg C, even if there is 0 water in the air to start with. They can still help in certain climates, but require air conditioning or significant air movement to compensate.
Time to add another feedback loop to the party.
Installing solar should be a pre requisite to refrigerant AC installation. It’s the best case for solar too since the hot sunny days are when you need it the most.
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Swamp coolers suck, they don't work on humid days, they make any paper in your house damp and damage books, the pads will get moldy and you'll be breathing in that mold blowing directly into your house along with its smell and to even get any use out of them they have to be moving a ton of air so your whole house is a wind tunnel when it's on. My first summer living in NM we had one, my dad pulled it and installed a real air conditioner shortly after.
2/10 wouldn't recommend
But they’ve been used for decades effectively at a fraction of the energy use vs air conditioning. The problem is climate change pushing temps above their operating range. Do you think burning more coal so your paper stays rigid is the pragmatic solution for society?
Arguably it'd be better to use air conditioners as long as that energy is from renewables such as solar (where the southwest is particularly suited) to help save water, which is in critically short supply in those areas.
I don't think we should continue burning any fossil fuels but that's not what I was talking about. I was making a personal testimony on why I dislike swamp coolers.
I'm a staunch supporter of anything with swamp in the name. Except maybe swamp ass, however aptly named.
The first step to beating swamp ass is to acknowledge the problem.
PSA on Swamp Ass from your friendly Captain Malcolm Reynolds :)