Evaporative Cooler on the Roof??

On California Gold with Hugh Hosier (sp?) several years ago, he did a show on houses down around Thermal CA and the cooling system they used years ago. If I remember right, they draped the houses in burlap and had water tanks on towers that would drip and wet the burlap. I think they used these in the early 1900's. Probably could find more doing a search online.
Brian

I remember my Grandmother telling me that back when she was a girl here in the AZ desert (Winslow and Florance) in the mid teens (like 1916) they would wet Navajo rugs and hang them over the windows and pray for a breeze to blow through.

I have but not that tall... Last time I was parked where I'm parked now in fact.

In some cases they can be very effective.. For example when I was parked in the Az Desert I used a portable one.. in the bedroom. Not only did it take about 10 degrees off the thermometer, it added a few points to the hydrometer and I really needed those too.

I never had one in my car but all cars from 1960 on had AC. We had 48 cars from 1959 to present + 5 MHs.

TucsonJim wrote:

Bumpyroad wrote:
great that will knock the temp down to 85.
bumpy

Bumpy, they probably wouldn't work very well in your neck of the woods, but out west during periods of low humidity, they will easily bring a 100 degree day into the low to mid 70's if they are set up correctly.

Jim

Well,
In our new home of five months, here in Lake Havasu AZ, I installed (or should I say "had installed") a 7500 cu. ft. Swamp cooler on the roof of my RV garage that's attached to the home. We moved in, April 26th and, I had it installed in late May. The weather was starting to really warm up a bit. When it was 95-100 and really low humidity outside, that unit would bring the RV and, the two car garage down to about 82-84 inside, making it really nice for my project work.

But, in the recent high humidity weather we've had for the last couple of weeks, that units does very little to aid in comfort inside those two garages. I never thought we'd see "High Humidity" here in the desert of AZ. Sorry to the OP here, surely didn't mean to stray off-point in his thread.
Scott

Bumpyroad wrote:
great that will knock the temp down to 85.
bumpy

Bumpy, they probably wouldn't work very well in your neck of the woods, but out west during periods of low humidity, they will easily bring a 100 degree day into the low to mid 70's if they are set up correctly.

Jim

Bumpyroad wrote:
great that will knock the temp down to 85.
bumpy

The one on my house here in this CO high (5000 ft high) desert valley will keep the house at 76 to 78 when the outside temp is about 100 degrees.

Yeah I remember those round units that you rolled the window up on... They weren't effective and mostly rich people had them... we just kept the windows down with our arms hanging out.

great that will knock the temp down to 85.
bumpy

A friend of mine in TEMPE AZ got one of these evaporator coolers for his small trailer... His game plan was to use solar panel storing into a battery and run this on his desert trips...

All that needs powered is a 12VDC water pump and blower fan...

Should reduce the outside air by 15-20 degrees I would imagine...

Probably doesn't weight very much either...



When we lived in Tempe AZ back in the 60s this was the way to cool your house back then. Every house had one on its roof... Play games with windows cracked open and enjoy the cool breeze. Changing out the filters however you had to arm yourself to the gills for protection from black widow spiders living in the swamp cooler hehe...

Roy Ken