Do evaporative coolers work?

anon_ymous

I've seen this 

https://amzn.eu/d/dnB2lK5

And it certainly *looks* good but it might not work so well on our most "warmest" of days given high humidity levels? I can't recall us having many hot days with dry heat, where these would surely work better? 

Would there also be mould issues? Even if the window is open all night? 

When it comes to the alternatives:
Fans basically only move warm air around Even portable AC needs to be vented due to the nature of how they work  and AC is ridiculously expensive anyway, both to buy and also to run. 

Megaross

Swamp coolers absolutely do work but not that well and they're a bit of a faff.

For what it's worth I'd just buy an aircon unit or if you really don't want one - consider ceiling fans, they do make a difference.

Soot2006

I bought my air con unit from Amazon on their 6 monthly payments scheme last year. Considered all the evaporative coolers and other fan-based options first, but after readings loads of reviews I bit the bullet the committed the extra money. The difference it has made to hot summer nights is incredible. We have a dormer conversion so it gets HOT. The previous owners redid the roof with new insulation. In winter that's great but in summer the heat just seems to pool up in the conversation and open windows make no difference. The air con is just fantastic. I got one with a timer, so I set it for an hour or two at bedtime on the worst nights, and verrrrrry rarely (once since we bought it), I felt the need to run it during the day and brought it downstairs to keep us comfortable while working from home on a hot and muggy day.

anon_ymous

Megaross said:

Swamp coolers absolutely do work but not that well and they're a bit of a faff.

For what it's worth I'd just buy an aircon unit or if you really don't want one - consider ceiling fans, they do make a difference.

Thanks. I'm considering getting ceiling fans in my own house once that goes through, but I'm renting atm

In Pakistan, my family pretty much has zero AC and ceiling fans instead. They don't use a lot of power and work pretty well for what they are 

Ectophile

The thing about "swamp coolers" is that they will increase the humidity.

If the air is hot and dry, then they will increase the humidity a bit, but also cool the air.  That's generally good.

If it's hot and humid, then not only won't the evaporative cooler work very well, but it will make the air even more humid in the process.

shiraz99

Do we really need ACs at home in this country? OK, it's been a bit warm for a few days, but the other 350 odd days of normal weather doesn't really justify the expense, surely. Not exactly MSE, imho, just saying.

tacpot12

shiraz99 said:

Do we really need ACs at home in this country? OK, it's been a bit warm for a few days, but the other 350 odd days of normal weather doesn't really justify the expense, surely. Not exactly MSE, imho, just saying.

I would agree that we don't need aircon in the UK for more than a few day a year, but I think this might change as result of global warming. For elderly people, it might be a lifesaver if we have a heatwave. 

anon_ymous

shiraz99 said:

Do we really need ACs at home in this country? OK, it's been a bit warm for a few days, but the other 350 odd days of normal weather doesn't really justify the expense, surely. Not exactly MSE, imho, just saying.

For the most part, no but sadly summers here are getting warmer. It was similar last year tbh. Also, you could have the AC on just to get comfortable to go to sleep tbh for 30 minutes

See here too
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/climate-change-summer-heatwaves-air-con-sales

But yes, they're really expensive to run. That's my big reason for not wanting AC

anon_ymous

Ectophile said:

The thing about "swamp coolers" is that they will increase the humidity.

If the air is hot and dry, then they will increase the humidity a bit, but also cool the air.  That's generally good.

If it's hot and humid, then not only won't the evaporative cooler work very well, but it will make the air even more humid in the process.

Yup. This was my concern about that too. It's a shame as they are a lot cheaper to run than AC

Tiexen

shiraz99 said:

Do we really need ACs at home in this country? OK, it's been a bit warm for a few days, but the other 350 odd days of normal weather doesn't really justify the expense, surely. Not exactly MSE, imho, just saying.

Modern (air to air) AC systems not only cool but heat as well and you get 3 x the heat of a conventional electric heating per £1 of electric -  Heat pumps

anon_ymous

Tiexen said:

shiraz99 said:

Do we really need ACs at home in this country? OK, it's been a bit warm for a few days, but the other 350 odd days of normal weather doesn't really justify the expense, surely. Not exactly MSE, imho, just saying.

Modern (air to air) AC systems not only cool but heat as well and you get 3 x the heat of a conventional electric heating per £1 of electric -  Heat pumps

Ahhh a COP of 3 essentially? Heat pumps are basically just AC in reverse anyway tbf