Thoughts on "swamp coolers"?

[SellersSign&Design]

North Carolina has had a very rough start to summer so far. For the past couple weeks we have been just below or past the 100 degree mark. I have been working in fire department bays doing installs on trucks, most of which are not insulated and have metal roofs... which leads to extremely high temperatures. It makes it difficult to install vinyl but even worse it makes for dangerous working conditions. I have seen these "swamp coolers", but the prices have always been high and they used to be very big. But now I'm seeing a lot of small portable units with impressive cooling capacities and good prices. What are your thoughts on these? Do they do enough to make a difference? Do they create a humidity problem?

 

[drum5150]

Worked at a shop for 8 years here in Tucson, AZ that had a secondary install bay behind the shop. The bay only had a swamp cooler, while our main shop had AC. There's no way we could've gotten any vehicle install or big job prep done without it. It really did make a difference and made it more comfortable in the bay while working. It cooled it off enough, but also will never be as good as AC.

Now as far as humidity goes, I'm not sure how that will affect you. We have so little humidity here in AZ that any humidity the swamp cooler added to the air was probably not all that noticeable to us, but might be to you living in a more humid climate.

Hope that helps!

 

[John in Cali]

First thing that came to my mind, cheap and easy to transport.

[video=youtube;HxSLbpAwibg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxSLbpAwibg[/video]

 

[MagnetStew]

Swamp coolers don't work so well in humid environments. Out west where the air is dry they are great. Here in NC they only add to the misery IMHO.

 

[Desert_Signs]

I have swamp in my shop. When it's 115 outside, it cools it down to about 88. Not cool, but not bad either, especially with under 35% humidity