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So I'm moving to Albuquerque (Sandia Park actually) on August 1st.
Rented a place with a swamp cooler...what's the story on those things?
Do they keep a house cool? It simply has an on or off switch so you can't
turn it up or down? Is it used 24/7 or do most people shut them off at
night since it gets so cool?
Just looking for some general info for a girl from the Midwest!
Thxs
So I'm moving to Albuquerque (Sandia Park actually) on August 1st.
Rented a place with a swamp cooler...what's the story on those things?
Do they keep a house cool? It simply has an on or off switch so you can't
turn it up or down? Is it used 24/7 or do most people shut them off at
night since it gets so cool?
Just looking for some general info for a girl from the Midwest!
Thxs
They generally keep the house cooler, except on humid days.
Well, they generally have three switches, blower high/low, blower on/off, water pump on/off. Some have thermostats.
I use to have ours on almost 24/7 with the blower on low.
I turn mine on low during the day when I'm home and set it off when I leave. Sometimes during the night I'll set it to high to keep it a little extra cool. They work fine, though it'd be nice to have a thermostat.
Sandia Park is not Albuquerque. In Albuquerque I generally don't need it until late afternoon, then shut it off at bedtime. If the outside temp does not make it to 90 during the day, then I generally don't use it at all. A floor fan works well.
I'm surprised you even have a swamp cooler in Sandia Park. I don't think you will need it much.
I have 2 swamp coolers, and they generally keep the house 15-20 degrees cooler than the outdoor temperature. On really hot days (90+), I turn them on in the morning and off before going to bed. One thing is for sure: swamp coolers are less expensive to run than air conditioners are.
I moved to Albuquerque last summer from a marine climate, and it took me a while to adapt. I had it running 24/7, but sometimes would turn it off around 3:00am because it got too cold. My electric bill at its highest was $55. WAY cheaper than AC! I prefer it actually because you're getting the fresh outside air. The exception to that is when there are forest fires and you need to turn it off because of smoke. As said they don't work when it's humid, so I just open windows and take cold showers.
My favorite climate site says that Sandia Park only gets about 13 days a year over 90. A swamp cooler would be fine, and probably not necessary most days.
Hey, welcome to the neighborhood! We've lived out here in Sandia Park for almost 10 years, and have only needed a swamp cooler for the last 3 years, didn't have one at all for the first 7 years. This is the ideal climate for swamp coolers, trust me: it doesn't get as hot as down in town, and humid days are even rarer than hot days.
And if you're moving in on August 1, you may not need to turn yours on at all: we use ours most during the month of June and halfway into July. We only need to turn ours on between the hours of noon and 6pm, we only run it when we're in the house, and we have never, not once, needed to turn it on at night.
Of course your mileage may vary based on the design and orientation of your house: the less western exposure you have, and the more windows positioned for cross-breeze, the cooler your house will stay, for example.
The most crucial thing to understand is that you *must* partly open at least a few windows for your swamp cooler to function properly, as it has to be able to push the hot air out of the house. The links Poncho_NM provided above really helped me to understand how it works.
The other concept that helped me is "passive solar = active owner". Meaning that you open as many windows as you can at night to fill your house with cool air, then gradually shut them, and draw drapes or blinds across southern & western exposures, during the afternoon as it heats up.
After learning how to operate our swamp cooler, I have to say, we really love it, because if you do it right it really works! We enjoy the fresh air, and the low cost as mentioned - ours adds only $30 - $35 per month to our electric bill.
So I'm moving to Albuquerque (Sandia Park actually) on August 1st.
Rented a place with a swamp cooler...what's the story on those things?
Do they keep a house cool? It simply has an on or off switch so you can't
turn it up or down? Is it used 24/7 or do most people shut them off at
night since it gets so cool?
Just looking for some general info for a girl from the Midwest!
Thxs
Welcome to Sandia Park. We live at 7,000 feet at the top of a hill. We have one swamp cooler in the master bed....it's okay but I actually like AC better. Because our one-story house sits at the top of a hill ... we get direct sun. We're about 7 degrees (+/-) cooler than ABQ nevertheless requiring AC. We keep the AC off at night and it's not needed in the morning as we have ceiling fans.
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