The evaporative cooler, AKA swamp cooler cools through the evaporation of water. They work great here in Arizona by sucking in dry air from outside, running it through wet pads where the evaporation cools the air and then into the building. This pressurizes the interior slightly and it is exhausted passively through bathroom vents, stove vents, and poorly sealed windows and doors, or actively through an open window or specially constructed barometric dampers. They can also be used outdoors to blow cool air directly on you. If you put one in an enclosed, unventilated area it becomes a humidifier. You might have a cooling effect for about 30 minutes or so while it is steadily increasing the humidity of that environment, but the air inside will quickly reach a saturation point at which time the swamp cooler no longer cools and the building will begin warming up again to the ambient temperature imposed by the environment, except now with nearly 100% humidity. It is a nice, lower cost suggestion however it is not quite the right thing for this application. As for cooling the air with a portable refrigeration unit, I have seen them with dual ducts or a split single duct where they suck in outside air to cool the condenser coils then blow the very hot air back outside again. It is actually more efficient because in order for a unit to exhaust the air, it has to pull it from somewhere. And without a dedicated intake duct, you are pulling hot outside air into the space you are trying to cool. Just shop around for a portable that has that feature. BTW, window A/C units cool and recirculate the inside air, the condenser fan and coils are outside where they belong, and the better units can heat in the winter, too.Originally Posted by 771subliminal
- Paul
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