[bluecupcakes]

For those of you that have evaporative cooling, approximately what temp does your house sit at when it's around 38 degrees outside with low humidity? Also does it leak a lot of water onto the roof (like a constant stream)?
I just think ours is not working effectively but trying to see what's normal before I go and complain to the real estate. Thanks in advance for any replies

[howdo]

Ours has a constant stream onto the roof - they are supposed to.

They also begin to lose effectiveness about 38-40 degrees. I don't have a thermometer but today was 40 degrees here and I had the fan on high and it felt like it was still about 30 degrees inside. It was pleasant enough but no great shakes.

Don't get me wrong, so much better than without it, but at 38 you will notice it start to be ineffective - the lower the humidity the longer it'll last.

The filters do need replacing at times, you might want to find out when it was last serviced.

[ChilliDog]

I don't have evap myself but my neighbor does. On recent hot days (42deg) she said her place was sitting on 30+ deg. She came to my place to visit to get out of the heat.

I think I have heard they do dump their water ... not 100% sure tho.

[bluecupcakes]

We have had a lot of trouble with it recently it is very old and the straw pads have rotted away. The man stuffed insulation in it to cover the holes and it seemed to work well for about a month but today seems to be blowing hot air.
By water running off the roof I mean its like a tap running constantly not a drip. A previous issue we had with it was that the water was running into our ceiling not off the roof but that has been fixed now so I had never noticed water running from the roof before!

[MahnaMahna]

Our house sits around 27/28 on 40+ days if we use the evap air con.

Also we had our air con serviced last year and the guy said that they should NOT be constantly leaking water as this means it is constantly refilling and using excessive water. He said it should refresh every few hours and after the service this is what it started doing.

It doesn't constantly run down our roof though, we have a pipe that feeds it straight to the garden beds.

[mollybot]

Ours is brand new - we got it four weeks ago (YAY !!).

It keeps the house reasonably cool on insane days like today (40 degrees, 100% humidity); it cycles its water, so it only dumps it every four hours or so; it has a pipe - it doesn't run over the roof.

Your Evap sounds clapped out I'm afraid ! If it has no pads, I have NO idea how its cooling....

[Chocolate Addict]

They say (most a/c places) that evap is supposed to sit at around 10C lower than outside temp approx. You also need to leave some windows open. If there is condensation on the floor then you need to open more windows.

Ours was serviced this year as the motor was cactus and also the water pads needed replacing. Apparently the water pads are supposed to be replaced every 2 years. We also had birds nesting in it! lol

I much prefer, and wish we could afford refrigerated a/c but it is too expensive to convert.

[howdo]

I think ours has a stream onto the roof only because the pipe (and the gutters!) are wearing out. I was told it was supposed to be getting rid of the water it was though.

[mad madam mim]

They do dump water but it shouldn't be happening constantly, ours has a pipe that dumps the water, last year we started noticing that it was constantly dumping water, we had someone come out to take a look at it and some sort of valve needed replacing, it was a simple fix (though we had to wait a week for them to get the part, so they turned it off for us so we weren't wasting water while we waited).

[zande]

Ours works incredibly well in dry heat, even at 40 odd degrees, it won't even be working hard and it's incredibly cool inside. As soon as you add a smidge of humidity, it becomes almost unbearable, and today was just shocking, I think it was high 30s and really high humidity. The only way we get through days like today with the humidity and high temps is alternate between the pool and the house LOL.

If I ever build I will install reverse cycle, Perth has become so much more humid now although maybe a mix of the two might work. I love evap for the open doors & windows and most nights it's pretty good, maybe I'll put in a large split system in the main area for the really humid days.

This post has been edited by zande: 08/01/2013, 12:42 AM