Cheap Alternative to Air Conditioning?

[SouthernThunder]

I have been considering the "ground tubes" for cooling but I ran across this interesting set-up today. It is basically an evaporative cooler and a big attic fan. Called QuietCool. Anyone heard of it? Its hard to say how much of this is hype and I wonder how much it could realy cool your house down.

Here is the link.Quite Cool

[Windy in Kansas]

I'm a little skeptical of the company since they are so evasive with some of the information they provide and don't provide. A good example is pump motor power consumption of 25 watts. With no mention at all of what the attic fans require some folk would unfortunately assume 25 watts is the total power consumption while the fans are the biggest user.

By me having the whole house attic fan already in place all I need is their water excelsior unit to draw air through. Should be able to build one easy enough. I might think about that before next year since the heat bothered me more than usual this year.

[ladycat]

As far as I know, evaporative cooling only works in a dry climate.

[mdharris68]

Shade trees and subterranian construction will do it.

[frogmammy]

...so will moving to Alaska!

Mon

[Windy in Kansas]

Originally Posted by ladycat

As far as I know, evaporative cooling only works in a dry climate.

At least the sales company does state that. Not quite sure that in a hot dry climate one could lower the home interior temperature as low as they say, but it would certainly help.

I was in Arizona in 2000 and noticed the schools have swamp coolers in use. You would expect regular air-conditioning, but instead it was the alternative.

[SolarGary]

Hi,
I seems like a clever idea -- using the whole hose fan to pull air through an evaporative cooler.

You would probably have to close other openings (windows) in order to get enough air to go through the EnviroCool to make it work well. Even with that, I wonder if works as efficiently as a dedicated evaporative cooler?

Like all evaporative coolers, its not going to do much for a humid climate. You could consult the charts that some of the evap cooler sites have to see if it will work in your area.

I did not see a price?

Gary

[mike3367]

would adding a block of ice in the water make it work better ?

[ace admirer]

it will only work with low humidity... yes a block of ice would help a 3 ton block of ice would give you 3 tons of ac

[mike3367]

i just knew on are old swap cooler it made a huge difference i just wondered if it cool the water down enough to make it work here in oklahoma

[mightybooboo]

Regarding evap cooling.....

To keep our rabbits cool we had Barn windows open with burlap over them.Then we draped burlap over the tops and side of the metal hutches.We would wet them down throughout the day and it REALLY knocked the temps down.

This was in a high heat,low humidity situation,sure did a good job.

Now a days I would use a fine mist system around the burlap to wet it all day.Cheap and effective.