NW-Bound
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2008
- Messages
- 35,712
Do you only use a/c or do you also use an evaporative cooler when it's not that hot?
I'm in Southern California and mine works for me most of the time except for a couple of weeks in August when the thunderstorms roll in. I hate that period because the a/c just can't keep the house as cool as the swamp cooler does, my house stays in the low 70's and the electric bill is tiny. Of course the downside is that they use a couple of gallons of water a day which I capture to water my plants.
Evap coolers work well in the dry Southwest until the humidity picked up in mid summer (monsoon season). People then switch to AC.
Evap coolers lose attractiveness for two-story homes because annual servicing requires climbing up on the roof. Fewer and fewer homes have them, and the construction and design of new homes cannot easily accommodate them.
I prefer AC now, particularly with the free solar power that I get from my system.