swamp cooler advice....

[Legendary70]

Hello all.

Just moved into this house here in El Paso, TX.

New to the swamp cooler thing. I was wondering why the swamp cooler blows cold air upstairs overnight and warm air downstairs over night? I have it on high cool. It is averaging 30-34 degrees outside overnight. Since it is cold outside at night....should i have it on high cool or high vent or low cool or low vent? Thank you.

 

[kvaughn]

All it's really doing is putting putting humidity in the air. Where is it located in the house? Two story house?--KV

 

[bdmicarta]

(Also known as evaporative cooling.) It pulls air into the house through a wet filter, when the water in the wet filter evaporates it cools the incoming air. If it doesn't have water or isn't pumping water over the filter then it won't do the cooling trick. If it is that cold outside you probably don't need to run it at all. They do add humidity to the air so are typically only used in areas with relatively low humidity. Where I live they don't work because our humidity is a bit too high.

 

[gadgetgeek]

What might be happening is that overnight the water in the cooler is warmer than the air outside, so then you would want to be on vent. Also as the relative humidity changes, as mentioned, you'll get more or less effect.
If you are using a swamp cooler, you also need to manage your airflow in your house a little bit more, so opening the upstairs windows to allow heat to escape overninght and then trapping the cooler air inside for as much of the morning as you can. With a little practice its manageable. Swamp coolers are way cheaper than air-con if you have low humidity, as they really do lower the temp of the incoming air for the cost of running the fan, and the water.