Evaporative cooling for shop/office?

I live in the south. Its july. Mid 90s and 80-90% humidity most days.

My shop is a basement,  essentially. South facing doors are the only outside wall, and theyre in the sun almost all day.

Im freaking melting now that im working from home all day, as my desk is in the shop. I have a desk fan blowing in my face, and an oscillating fan moving air around the rest of the shop.

I have a dehumidifier running at 52% humidity setting. It works. 

I cannot stomach the cost of putting in a mini split system at this time. Maybe in the fall, but not right now. 

My wife found this miniature evaporative cooler at wal mart for me. Before I crack it open, and eat $40 if it don't work,  i figured id ask here. 

Does an evaporative cooler work and make sense in this situation? Is there any tricks to make it better for me? Or general tricks to make things better? Im getting sick of swamp ass and boiled nuts.

Unfortunately evaporative coolers work best with low dew points (southwest US). They wouldn’t be very effective with the higher dew points you’re living with. 

We had a couple big ole ones at Eglin AFB.  They worked well enough, but only when it was a dry day.  Otherwise we'd just run the fans on them.

https://www.bendpak.com/shop-equipment/swamp-coolers/cb-30/

In reply to 11GTCS :

Right. Desert southwest is the only place ive really seen them used vs legitimate air conditioning. 

My goal is a 10-15 degree reduction at my desk area. Essentially a cool oasis in the shop.

We got rolling a/c units when the main a/c went out. It vents hot air out a window hose thing. It has 2 tanks that you have to drain but they can be hooked up to a hose.

If I put it on "Dry" in the shop it does provide a cool spot. Mind you it wasnt designed or sized for a 30x48 pole barn, but it does help.

About $350 ish if I remember right.

There was one of those in the roof of my shop when I moved in.  I had it brought back to life, and then never used it, because you can't work on cars when you are dripping.  And by dripping, I mean I needed gutters below my eyebrows, and a bucket beneath my nuts.  Horrible, and we don't get as humid as you probably do.

They work in KS.  You live in swamp land so it wouldn't be as effective.  We had one on a hog farrowing building growing up that kept temps below 80 in the summer.   I could go into detail but I don't think they'd do what you want.  A dehumidifier and a window A/C unit is probably what I'd do in your position.

They're standard around here where 30% humidity is a damp day. But you need refrigerated air. You can get a room size portable AC for a fairly reasonable price. 

Evaporative coolers actually add humidity to your environment. That's why they only work in dry conditions.

Think of it as an reverse dehumidifer.  I run a fan and a dehumidifier in my open garage. I know the dehumidifier is stupid, because it's not in a closed room, but it still makes me feel better.

We run one in the house 24/7 set on continuous operation. It's a 70 pint and we could empty it three times a day (if we were not sleeping.)

 I am not a proponent of the Macgyver school of engineering, but a cool breeze is nice to have.  Freeze gallon jugs and it is convenient to swap in a new cold source too.  Can you shade the exposed part of the shop?

Your upstairs has AC, is there a way you can run a vent tube from upstairs to downstaris to blow air on you? You don't need to AC the whole space, just blow cold air on your face. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

Your upstairs has AC, is there a way you can run a vent tube from upstairs to downstaris to blow air on you? You don't need to AC the whole space, just blow cold air on your face. 

 

I actually did that. Now that you mention it, its not really putting anything out the vent. Didn't even think about it....

Time for some exploratory work. 

The reason I ask is because something simple like the bathroom vent fan above my shower puts out quite a lot of air. Seems like you could rig up some vent tubing and a fan to make your face colder. When it's 90 in the garage some nice 78 degree air will feel like opening the fridge. 

Evap coolers (swamp coolers) only work in low humidity as has been mentioned.

Dehumidifiers add net heat to an area.  They do a good job of drying the air, but they do make it marginally warmer.  A dehumidifier is basically an A/C unit that you don't put in a window.  It refrigerates one side to condense the water, then the other side has the hot refrigerant.  That alone is mostly a net wash in heat in/out, but the additional heat from the electronics and the compressor end up adding a bit of heat to the room.

If you put an evap cooler in the basement, you'll be causing the dehumidifier to work harder and adding more heat.  You might end up canceling each other out.

My suggestion is to replace the dehumidifier with a portable A/C.... which is basically a dehumidifier that ducts the hot side out a hose.  Remarkably similar critters.  The only real difference is that the dehumidifier kicks on at a certain humidity, while the A/C kicks on at a certain temp, but the A/C should control the humidity enough for your needs.

Ive looked at the portable ac. The exhaust routing is the hang up. Oly place i can think of, due to being concrete filled block walls with rock facing the outside,  is the garage door. Which makes the door inoperable. Unless i can t into the dryer vent 12 feet overhead somehow. 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

I would plan on punching a hole in the wall. We used a portable AC unit when ours went out 2 years ago. It had a small flexible duct. We ran it to a window, but it would be easy to run through a wall with dryer vent fittings.

Edit to add: A Swamp cooler will only make the heat index worse.

Mini Split heat pumps can be had pretty cheap. They only need a 3" hole for the lines to go through. Condenser unit sits outside and the evap unit hangs on a wall. 

Something like this will keep it nice and cool in the summer and nice and warm in the winter for under $600. 

Pioneer 9,000 BTU Ductless Mini Split

Portable A/C units work reasonably well. I bought one for my apartment in NH a few years ago and then gave it to my mother to use in her living room when I returned home. The one downside is they are exhausting some of the conditioned air out the window as part of the cooling process. They cost a bit more, but look for one with two air hoses - those keep the indoor A/C air and the air used for the cooling process separate. 

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

Not always.  Many of them have two hoses; an inlet and an exhaust.  They pull outside air in to cool the condenser and blow the hot air back outside.

The downside there is that you're using hot, outside air to cool the condenser so it isn't quite as efficient to operate, but likely a wash in cooling the space.

Edit:  It would have been beneficial if I had read your entire post before replying.  Move along.  Nothing to see here.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

Why not exhaust to under the house?  Or temp in a window ac unit in the doorway to under there?

Stampie (FS) said:

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

Why not exhaust to under the house?  Or temp in a window ac unit in the doorway to under there?

Ain't that borrowing trouble? Being serious here. Doesn't that add humidity that can lead to much bigger complications than swamp ass? 

Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:

My shop is a basement,  essentially. South facing doors are the only outside wall, and theyre in the sun almost all day.

What can you do to shade that side of the building?  A temporary wall, an awning, even a shade sail could be the difference between unbearable temps and bearable temps.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

Well your swamp ass might be pretty bad.  How about a cooling tube running under the house?  

Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:

Stampie (FS) said:

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

Why not exhaust to under the house?  Or temp in a window ac unit in the doorway to under there?

Ain't that borrowing trouble? Being serious here. Doesn't that add humidity that can lead to much bigger complications than swamp ass? 

I'd be concerned about mold and ideal climate for temites, so I'd agree with you.

Can you rig something up where you lift the garage door a bit, cover the gap with something like a strip of coroplast and run the a/c exhaust through there?

Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) said:

Edit to add: A Swamp cooler will only make the heat index worse.

Mini Split heat pumps can be had pretty cheap. They only need a 3" hole for the lines to go through. Condenser unit sits outside and the evap unit hangs on a wall. 

Something like this will keep it nice and cool in the summer and nice and warm in the winter for under $600. 

Pioneer 9,000 BTU Ductless Mini Split

The cost of that unit isn't a lot more than the portable unit I bought back in 2016.  I look forward to installing something like that in my garage.