Dilema! Homemade A/C?

[lilanniesmommy]

A little history first. Recently my husband was diagnosed w/ stage 4 colon cancer( no longer able to work) and I lost my job last week! The only money we have coming in is his SSI check. He gets cold very easy now and we cannot afford to keep the house cold enough for our chins(1 girl, 1 boy in seperate cages) they are in their own room. I cannot afford to buy or run a window unit for them in their room. My question is could I use a swamp cooler in their room to keep them cool? Would that put to much moisture in their room? For anyone who doesnt know what a swamp cooler is its a cooler w/ a hole on top and one on the side, you put a fan on top hole and a piece of pvc pipe in the side hole, put ice in the cooler and turn it on, then the colder air blows out of the pvc pipe. I live in South east Missouri so it gets pretty hot in the summer upper 80's and 90's. Please help I dont want to have to rehome my babies but if I cant give them the proper care then I will have to rehome them. I have chin chillers for their cage, I have heard of people using frozen water bottles, but I am affraid that they will chew on the plastic. Any help is appreciated. :hmm:

 

[Amethyst]

Swamp coolers only work if you live in a very dry area, like the desert, since they work by adding moisture to the air. For chinchillas you need the humidity to also be low, ideally below 50% and below 75F (the higher the temp the lower the humidity needs to be) so adding humidity to the air would be a bad idea. The chin chillers are more for extra cooling, like after the chin has been running around, not primary cooling, they work the best if you put them in the fridge or freezer and switch them out every hour or so. The frozen water bottles work more as an emergency/temporary fix for when the a/c breaks or the power goes out and you'll need to watch the chin at all times to make sure it doesn't get wet or eat the bottle.

The only thing I can think to help is if you have a basement or first floor level of your house with concrete floor. Growing up in Maine we never had an a/c but we kept the chins down stairs in a room with a concrete floor with a very thin carpet, and all the curtain and shades down so the room stayed much cooler.

Also, in case you haven't already looked into it, window a/c units aren't that expensive, especially if you catch a sale. I got a 5,000btu a/c for $80 (I've heard people found some as cheap as $50) at Walmart, and it costs about $1/day (at about 10 cents a kw) to run.

 

[lilanniesmommy]

Thank you for your help Amethyst. I am going to see if I can get an a/c unit fairly cheap and maybe it wont bring my electric up to much. Thank you again