DIY mini swamp coolers?

Inspired by a tip at thriftyfun.com last week - I am experimenting with putting water in front of my many household fans to act as mini-swamp coolers!  I have one in front of the fan by my desk - and I have used the shallow decorative chip tray we got as a wedding present for the water and have put one of my articificial bonsai trees in it (plastic and indestructible). I have also tried putting some strips of paper towel on the fan itself and ice cubes in the water, but the ice cubes melt so quickly.... 

My husband thinks any cooling I feel is mostly psychologically - but on the other hand he likes the effect of a little lake in the living room! I also have bowls in front of other fans and in front of the fan on top of the frig (the kitchen gets very warm) I tried a small frozen plastic bottle of water.  It fits better up there and it's one way of recycling those water bottles, as you can't re-use them as I have found out (due to leakage of the plastic components - which is unsafe).

This is all because our one living room air conditioning unit gets overwhelmed in the afternoon when it heats up - we direct the cool air with a fan (my husband's bright idea) but it's still a trickle.  And I am not sure whether this wiring in this old place would support another AC unit.  When we have too many appliances on in the kitchen we blow a circuit breaker!

As I have mentioned before, we also have a lacy "veil" curtain on the front door, so I can open it a bit and make use of the updraft in the hall to further circulate air - while having privacy at the same time. (Beaded curtains serve the same purpose.) Also traps most of the bugs.  But when it gets hot, the air in the hall is hot, too, in the middle of the day - so then I close the door until the evening when it cools down.  Luckily we get the tail end of the ocean breezes here at night and it almost always cools down - so I keep the fans on to cool off the apartment overnight. 

Did a utility survey for the local S. Calif. Edison and apparently we use a lot of electricity - but with no insulation, as this is a building more than 50 years old, we do the best we can! At least I have the tree outside my living room window - which does help cut the sun, besides being so pretty. Will keep you posted on my swamp cooling experiments.  What are you doing to keep your cool?

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I lived in the Asian region before and it used to get extremly hot. What I used to do to keep cool with the fans was this:
I had several body wraps in my wardrobe we call chaddas (much like a sari or surong) I used to drench them in cold water and sqeeze them out just enough so there would be no drip and wrap myself in a surong style. It was so hot there that the wrap would dry in about an hour, but it kept me pretty cool during the day indoors under the fans. Keeping a spray bottle filled with cold water and a towel to spray and pat with also works well when doing this.
NOTE: I'm a floor lounger so I never worried about wetting the furniture, but you could open out a beach chair or something that is water resistant. Look, when its hot its hot and we will do anyting to keep cool, lol. Hope this will help you.

keep us posted on the results

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