So this year the 
and I are experimenting with an evaporative cooler vs our wall AC unit. We picked up a smaller window unit off Craigslist, and despite being a small unit it's managed to keep our house (1,500 square feet) at least 20* below ambient (if not more), even in this nice 100*+ heat wave we've been having.
Considering our power bill has been a quarter to a third of what last years was, and the house is staying just as cool, we're looking at stepping up into a larger one (the small one will move to the garage, where it's sorely needed). The goal is to have it run through ductwork to each individual room, then have a centrally located whole house fan to pull it out of the house and into the attic (and of course from the attic to the outside).
Looking at evaporative coolers, it doesn't seem that there are a lot of options out there, and they're all expensive. $500 for a box without a motor seems like an awful lot to me for what you get (equivalent fan from Grainger for $100, 1/2 HP motor from HF for $100, $20 pump, $30 in pads, and a bit more for some steel, seems easy enough to build one from scratch...).
Anyone got any good recommendations for brands or places to shop? There's not really anything available in this area outside the big box stores as swamp coolers are not very popular here (despite it being just about the perfect weather, almost always very low humidity and rarely above 90*).
and I are experimenting with an evaporative cooler vs our wall AC unit. We picked up a smaller window unit off Craigslist, and despite being a small unit it's managed to keep our house (1,500 square feet) at least 20* below ambient (if not more), even in this nice 100*+ heat wave we've been having.Considering our power bill has been a quarter to a third of what last years was, and the house is staying just as cool, we're looking at stepping up into a larger one (the small one will move to the garage, where it's sorely needed). The goal is to have it run through ductwork to each individual room, then have a centrally located whole house fan to pull it out of the house and into the attic (and of course from the attic to the outside).
Looking at evaporative coolers, it doesn't seem that there are a lot of options out there, and they're all expensive. $500 for a box without a motor seems like an awful lot to me for what you get (equivalent fan from Grainger for $100, 1/2 HP motor from HF for $100, $20 pump, $30 in pads, and a bit more for some steel, seems easy enough to build one from scratch...).
Anyone got any good recommendations for brands or places to shop? There's not really anything available in this area outside the big box stores as swamp coolers are not very popular here (despite it being just about the perfect weather, almost always very low humidity and rarely above 90*).
