patrick.net

Swamp coolers work well as long as the weather is dry. If it's muggy, they're hell. I used to have a teeny apartment and bought a portable swamp cooler that worked perfectly for the place, and was super cheap to run.

Maybe I should have posted this in Housing forum?

Bueller?

Window a/c units are reasonably priced and a small 5000 btu unit can be had for around $99 on sale to cool a small room. Some models are energy savers and don't use much electricity, comparable to a 75 watt incandescent bulb. You can easily take them with you when you move and sell them later.
I picked up an 8000 btu model at Home Depot for $159 a couple years ago that worked fine in my living room when my central system died and was being scheduled for replacement.
Adding ceiling fans can help circulate air to assist cooling in summer and heating in winter and can be either taken with you or left behind.
A large roof mounted swamp cooler hooked up to a central ductwork system can work well in dry climates. It must be ventilated via leaving a window cracked partially open to avoid high humidity and to put less pressurized resistance on the drum and motor.
However, s swamp cooler or box air will never drop temperature and humidity like central air.
I know someone who has a whole house fan who rarely has to use their air conditioning but I've never had one myself.

Thanks for the insights. I had a guy over today estimating some of the work required. There is a problem as it turns out with old water heater. It's inside the living space, and Davis like some other places, has ordinances about running a whole-house fan with a gas water heater present in the same ventilation space. Problems with pilot light blowout and exhaust backdraft. Hence installing a fan system would mean needing to put a solid door to enclose the water heater and a couple of vents on the wall of the house so it could pull it's air from outside. Adds complications, now not sure landlord will bite on it.

It's frustrating to me, as if I were the owner the first thing I would have done is replace the furnace (1960's) and the hot water heater (1983) with new efficient models, but they lived here 11 years and did not. Now that they are out of the house and not paying the bills I expect low interest in replacing inefficient antiques. Perhaps time to look for new rental.

Vicente says

as if I were the owner the first thing I would have done

LOL, I thought LLs were a critical element of the economic landscape, providing all the crucial management services that us meek non-LLs could not possibly be capable of as homeowners.

I am so disillusioned now. What will I do ???

The window ac units can jack your electric bills up by over $100 each month - and really cool a small space IMHO.

I should have said one of the first things I would have done is replace the water heater with a DEMAND (tankless) setup. Tankless presents no problems for whole house fans. They actually use concentric vent pipe as I understand it, so a single hole through your roof provides both intake and exhaust. Seems pretty damn nice. And you only heat the water when you need it.

When/if I ever get around to owning my own, I'm strongly leaning towards geothermal heat pump. Running above-ground stuff is IMO stupid short-term thinking.

Yeah I'm not looking forward to late summer. I did discover though SUNTEX screen material helps on the sun-ward window screens and patio screen doors. Cuts the incoming sun quite a lot without obscuring view very much. I have refitted 2 of the 3 patio screen doors with it.