>TJ> What excatly is a swamp cooler?  :^)    Have a good one.
 > 
 > It is Jim's choice of words not mine. I assume, it is a generic name 
 > for what
 > is popular in inland parts of AUS- an evaporative cooler, that blows 
 > air thru
 > a wet matrix of porous fabric. There are whole- house ones, 
 > permanently
 > plumbed into the water service. Very effective! Cheaper than freon 
 > types both
 > in capital cost and energy consumption.  BUT I would worry about the
 > possibility of nasty bacteria, fungal or viral growth therein, 
 > remembering Legionairre's Disease.
Alec,
 I think I got the term from folks in this conference. We don't have such 
things in this area because the high humidity precludes their use. As you 
point out, they're very simple technically, and very effective in cooling. 
The people I visited had one, and it was blowing a nice big stream of cold 
air into their kitchen window. The box outside was maybe 3 feet square.
I believe that there was a slight overflow, dumping some of the incoming 
water to drain to prevent growth of micro-organisms, but I've never heard of 
Legionairre's Disease coming from swamp coolers. We just had an outbreak in 
SE Michigan that was traced to a cooling tower for conventional A/C.
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