Basement air conditioning vs roof air conditioning.

Cuts Up,

Being from California, I can attest that many of the Units you saw in California may have actually been "Swamp coolers", more correctly known as "Evaporative Coolers".  They work well with very dry heat....and do not work well in humid areas.

We are in the process of having a house built up in the mountains above Bakersfield, which is hot and dry.  We talked to the archetict about putting in a dual system: swamp cooler and regular air conditioning.  The "Swamp coolers" are very energy efficient.  We've decided not to do that because his reasoning was swamp coolers bring mositure into the house which leads to mold in the ductwork, and our granddaughter is asmathic.  He thought that would be bad for her.  I was disappointed as I actually wanted moisture put into the house.  I think I'm going to do more research on his statement.

Marsha~

Marsha, we saw entire neighborhoods with these units on the roof, just like a planned community.  I'm almost positive we saw them in the Fresno area after we we left the Sequoia Nat'l Park.  It just looked so odd to us.

I have a friend near San Jose, and they don't have a/c in their home.  She put a portable swamp cooler in her bedroom last year and is very happy with it. 

Marsha,

For the record I wasn't referring to Swamp Coolers on MHs but you already know that.  Here is what we did on our house. 

The house has regular A/C but the garage has a swamp cooler.  During construction a swamp cooler was installed at the outside rear of the garage.  Then two windows were installed up at the ceiling and approximately diagonally opposite the swap cooler.  This makes the garage an extension of the house as far as usability in HOT weather.  In fact yesterday it was 107 degrees and the garage was 79 degrees.   

In this type of installation there are NO ducts and NO mold.  The air from the swamp cooler blows straight in from the outside and travels across the garage.  The increased air pressure exhausts the hottest air from up at the ceiling diagonally across the garage.  When you're in the garage you are definitely aware of the NICE cool temperature and you are also aware of a very slight bit of air movement. 

Now here is a kicker, every once in a while we like to put new fresh air in the house.  All we do is open the door from the garage to the house, open a couple of windows on the opposite side of the house, close the two garage vent windows and let the cool air flow through the house for a couple of hours.  This would also work well if there was an electrical power blackout because your MH generator could EASILY run an air cooler for days.  NOTE:  this air flow does NOT contain dust because the water bath in the air cooler wets and removes the dust.  We also have used this technique when we have burned something (food) in the kitchen and once when painting a room to get the paint smell out as we painted.

If your garage will also be a MH garage an air cooler is a must!!!  You cannot believe how nice it is to work on your MH or load and unload a MH in a nice cool environment.  OTOH, your house will be worth a lot more if you ever sell because you have a MH garage.  Not many houses have MH garages.

Last but not least ask Terry and Betty if they like their air cooled MH garage.  Terry and I worked together on the specifications for his air cooled MH garage.  If you decide to add a MH garage with an air cooler, I will help you with the specs.

JerryF

Marsha, I don't know about the hills at Bakersfield, but up north in the delta it gets cool almost every evening, even when it's extremely hot during the day. We installed a "whole house fan" that is in the ceiling, exhausting into the attic.  In the evenings when the outside temperature gets below the house interior temperature, we turn off the AC, open a few windows and turn on the fan.  It doesn't take long to feel the cool outside air and it's great for sleeping. Note that you need a timer on the fan, because if you go to bed with it on all night, by morning (50 degrees outside) you will be freezing.  In Los Gatos, where we lived for many years, we didn't have AC.  Only a couple of times a year did we wish for a cooler of some kind.

Hi Jerry,

I did realize you were discussing houses, not coachs.

I think what you did with your RV garage is fantastic, I remember you telling us about it at Quartsite.  I tucked the info in my brain so we could use it if it worked out.  We would really love to do the same thing if we had the room; but our property lot is pretty little.  We have figured out a parking space for the coach and are having 50 am service, water and a sewer connection put in.  Our problem is that we can't extend the covered garage to accomodate the motorhome as we would be too close to the next property line.

The garage is a 1,000 square feet, which is a great size, and Tim really wants a large workshop, so instead of making part of the garage for an RV, we opted for workshop area.  Tim does woodworking.  The house we just sold had tons of builtins, so Tim has lots of work to do.... ;D

We have, though, increased the insulation in the house and even in the garage.  It's hotter here in Kernville than it was in Bonsall.  However, in Bonsall we had lots of morning /early afternoon fog which gets depressing for me.  At least here, the sun is always shinning and the nights are great.  They are warm enough to set outside without jackets; but cool enough for sleeping.  In Bonsall, the nights were always very cool.

I think we are adjusting.

Marsha~

Marsha~

Caltex,

We had a whole house fan in the house we just sold.  They ARE great, aren't they?  We are putting one in the new house too.  Like you, we would turn off the A/C kick that whole house fan on and my gosh, it would freeze us out if we left it on for very long.  They so fantastic.

Marsha~

Marsha,

Here's a thought.  Tim may want a smaller air cooler for the garage workshop, i.e., if you are near Bakersfield unless maybe he likes to work at night when it's cooler - HA  HA    . 

One good way to save a bit of money in the future (if you even think you might install an air cooler) is to have water, electric (check codes re 20 or 30 amp), a sewer drain close by, a wire to wherever you would put the thermostat in the garage (near Tim's woodworking stuff), and the windows up at the ceiling all installed DURING original construction.   It always costs more to retrofit stuff!

You could even go to Home Depot and/or Lowes now and see their air coolers and find out how big the hole should be so the framers could frame that hole in the wall where the air cooler will be located.  In that way the sheetrock crew and stucco crew will just do their job so you have both the inside and outside walls finished neatly.  BTW, I bought a big plug of 8" thick closed-cell foam to close the square hole during the winter. 

JerryF

For those who were questioning the A/Cs on the roof of a house, this is quite typical in the west.  These days they're A/Cs and not swamp (or evaporative) coolers.  Personally, I don't think they look very nice because if a roof has tile, for example, the roof area below the A/C is a different material like a composite shingle that doesn't even begin to have the appearance of tile.  Our A/C air handler (condenser) is in the furnace which is inside our attic and the A/C compressors are outside along a house wall.  In South Carolina my sister's A/C and furnace are in the crawl space under her house, an inconvenient location to put it mildly.

Swamp coolers are wonderful, especially for garages, but during summer monsoons when the humidity rises, there is a certain dew point at which they don't work very well.  I would not want only a swamp cooler even in the desert.

ArdraF

Jerry, what a great idea.  I've printed out your message for future reference and design and it's going in my "design" folder. 

It would be very easy to put a evaporative cooler in the garage.  There are a couple of windows in the garage design at the moment.  It would be hardly anything to add one or two up high.  The builder is completely finishing the gargage with insulation and  drywall and paint.  He's put lots of outlets everywhere, include a 50 amp inside for Tim's big saws and a 50 amp outside for the motorhome.  I think it will work out very well.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Marsha~

Marsha,

The up-high windows should be the type that slide left and right so when they are open the open half is at the very top of the wall, as high as possible.  Also, make sure you get an air cooler that has enough capacity measured in Cubic Feet Per Minute for the number of cubic feet of air space in the garage.

JerryF

Thanks Jerry,  Will do the "up high" windows.

Marsha~

Speaking of basement air conditioning, I just finished surfing RV. net open roads forum (Tom, forgive me) and somebody had asked the same question (its currently on the 2nd page of Class A).

It would seem "they" are of the opinion contrary to "our" forum.

Could we be herd bound?

To be honest, even though I am a ICBO Uniform Building Code HVAC inspector, I had no clue about this basement air conditioning system. It's not what I thought it was.

One of the owners of a 2006 Tradewinds (I don't know who manufactures it) gave a pretty clear explanation of how it really works. Their explanation changes everything.

Judge for yourself.

By the way, Ardra and I grew up a few miles apart. Another amazing fact nobody cares about, except she and I.

Kerry

Funny how you never hear folks who have roof air complain about not beeing cool.
I just torture tested our 01 southwind in lake havasu. It was only 117 degrees.
For 1 week our 30 amp rig ran both airs and kept it nice and cool. I set the thermostats at 75-78.
The a/c only shedded the rear air for a minute or two while running the micro or making coffee. Not long enough to impact the inside temps.
I was extremely happy with the performance, especially having only a 30 amp rig. 

Mblaster:

I'm pretty impressed with your rig. Although at only 117 degrees there must have been a cold front move though Lake H.

I came that close to buying a Adventurer 50 amp with basement air. Didn't pull the trigger though. We boat and camp in the desert all summer and some of the parks on the colorado river only have 30 amp service. I wasn't convinced the basement air would keep us cool enough if it could only run one compressor or if it started getting finicky.
After last week I'm convinced I made the right choice.

I am certain you made the right choice.  As you have experienced the roof air works great.