Most private houses in the Southwest are cooled by swamp coolers. These use evaporation of water from fibrous pads to cool outside air drawn through them. Although cheaper to run, they don't do as good a job as refrigerated air, especially during times of higher humidity. Additionally, they use a lot of water. There may be an offsetting kind of advantage to using them though.
Most refrigerated air conditioners recycle air within the house rather
than trying to take a constant stream of hot, outside air and cool it rapidly enough to
maintain a comfortable temperature. The result is that people tend to live in sealed up
houses—and sealed up houses in winter often result in high household air pollution; air
pollution often worse than that outside. We just could have the same problem in summer.
Swamp coolers have the advantage of constantly introducing fresh air, while windows are
cracked to allow air to flow out. On the other hand, maybe we'd better study the
possibility of harmful, water-borne particles from ancient pipes before we get too
giddy.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.