AC or Windows + Fan?

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[Sludgenutz]

I grew up without A/C for the car. My pops would never buy a car with it, as he was a shade tree mechanic, and rather thrifty to boot.

Back in the day, it was ironic that the very time you needed the cool to save your sanity, was the high heat times that would boil over heavy cast iron V-8 cooling systems.

In the home, I use an evaporative cooler...also known as a "swamp cooler". These work great for the most part, as the air here is very dry to begin with.

Fractional horsepower motors of only 1/2 or 3/4 horsepower motors spin a squirrel cage that draws air past water drenched media that is soaked by a waterpump that uses only a small amount of energy. The amount of cubic feet of air moved in a well designed system is in the thousands per minute, if I am not mistaken. Whatever it is, it is gobs!

Efficient? Hell yes! My largest monthly electric bill was $45 last summer. There are maybe 14-21 days where there is high humidity in the atmosphere, and this reduces the efficiency of this type of cooling. Sometimes this feels miserable, but for the overall cost it really kicks @ss.

In desert climates evaporative coolers are very efficient. In the unfortunate footage I have seen of our fighting men in Iraq, I have seen evaporative coolers mounted on the outside of many of the residences.

edit: I also have fans in every room too.

[exnihilo]

Sh1tty apt. A/C in summer @ 750spft. = $186.00!!

¢g

[Skarekrough]

Sh1tty apt. A/C in summer @ 750spft. = $186.00!!

¢g

For the life of me I can't figure out why landlords have this intense fear of replacing windows.

The first year my wife and I moved into our house from our apartment that was maybe 1/4 the size we were amazed at how low our heating bill was. Then during the Summer we discovered that we could actually cool most of the house with a single window unit. Previously we'd of needed 5 to do the apartment, now we have 3 and it's a little bit overkill.

Looks like things are going to heat up around here today....I'll get to test the two new ones I got and installed on Saturday.

[LesStrat]

I live in south Louisiana.