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I have been seeing these compact little units advertised on TV and have also seen some locally in stores. They're very inexpensive. I think they are branded Arctic Air.
But we're talking about evaporative coolers and while they might cool the air, they don't seem like a good choice in regions where humidity is already high.
What do you think?
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They're only good in places where the dew point is low. They used to be fairly common (40 years ago) in Sacramento. They also only work when you have an intake (where the water laden pads are located) and an exhaust, preferably on opposite sides of a building. A portable unit would be totally useless.
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They're worse than useless in areas with any humidity.
My dad heard great things about them from a cousin recently returned from New Mexico. Except we lived in the rain forest of East Texas. For a couple of years our potato chips didn't crunch.
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Definitely don’t want to use it where the humidity is high. And what freerad said about the intake and exhaust ducts makes sense (though maybe you can run some kind of flex duct to put distance between the two...however unsightly).
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Those little units, in areas of low humidity, will barely cool the person they're pointed at. Period. They certainly won't cool a room. Maybe a small closet, but only if there isn't a person in it to heat it up. If you live in area where the humidity is low enough to use swamp cooling, you can roll your own bu hanging up a wet towel in a doorway, and using a reasonably powerful fan. The $40 you save by not buying Arctic Air will buy you a plenty good pedestal fan at Costco. For even better cooling, suspend both ends of the wet towel, and put some blue ice packs in the bottom of the "U", it'll both help cool colder, as well as keep the towel from flapping around.
In areas with higher humidity, don't soak the towel, damp is OK, and use more blue ice packs, while spreading them out to make as much surface area as possible for the fan to blow on/across.
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Evaporative cooling maxes out around 15 to 20 degrees in a low humidity environment. Get a large enough unit in that specific environment and they are great. Don’t expect them to work in high humidity areas or with small and low air flow units.
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they don't work unless we drain the swamp.
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....did you see the TV series 'The Swamp Thing' [ they do reruns on H&I ]......????
......probably like that........??
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They are not a good choice in regions where humidity is already high.
Unless you like mold and mildew or are in the mold and mildew abatement business.
Maybe tune out the ads ?
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The cheap ones you mentioned are usually not a true swamp cooler, they require you to load them up with ice cubes over which the air gets cooled when driven by the little fan inside.
They will cool off a small enclosed space like a bathroom for an hour or so......
