Australia

I live on the coast in a humid area now, so they wouldn't work.

But when I was growing up I lived outback - it was almost desert there and on hot summer days the temperature approached 60C some years. Just standing in the sun for a minute felt like you were dying on those days. Our primary cooling was reflective insulation on the house (we didn't have any thermal mass insulation, I don't think that would have worked).

Reflective insulation is very cheap. If you're on a budget - simple white paint works well (make sure it's rated to withstand UV). It won't do much for you in winter though... you want thermal mass insulation in winter.

Indoor temperatures were still quite high and we used primitive evaporative cooling to deal with that. Fine mist sprays, wet towel on your head (or wet hair), etc etc. It was extremely effective and comfortable.

If I lived in that climate again, I would combine evaporative cooling with air conditioning. Or just use aircon and add a humidifier. We just had solar power and back in those days it was too expensive to buy a system that could run an air conditioner. These days big solar systems are dirt cheap and air conditioners use less power as well.

PS: Larger split system air conditioners tend to produce a lot more cooling, with lower power consumption, less noise, and they dry out the air less than small box window ones. If you don't like aircon.. maybe you just need better aircon? It's not expensive - in fact might save you money if it reduces your power bill.