Just joined the forum and this my first reply, Good Topic and some great ideas presented as well.
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Roscoe,
Welcome to DOW. You will find numerous topics, with many participants eager to give you their two cents worth. Some of our advice is priceless! 
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Roscoe,
Some of our advice may also be worthless, but it is offered with a sincere desire to help those who want to be doers. Welcome to Drive On Wood.
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Welcome 
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I’ve kicked this topic around in my head a fair amount. A quick thought:
Dehumidification is an under appreciated part of “air conditioning” and drives a good fraction of the energy consumption. Cool air that hasn’t been dehumidified feels “swampy” and will produce mold in all kinds of places, many of them hidden. This is because cool but moist air holds so much water vapor that it is on the brink of condensing back into a liquid. Air like this will tend to shuttle water vapor from warmer spots in the building envelope into colder spots. This happens not just once but over and over in a cycle. Welcome to mold…
Dry air doesn’t condense in cold spots so it won’t shuttle water vapor around in the same way.
Dry air also feels cooler because our bodies are always shedding water. Water evaporates out of our lungs as we breath and off our skin as we sweat. When this water evaporates it cools the body and the evaporation process happens more readily into dry air vs moist. That’s not dinner party talk but it’s how the body works.
Underground or bermed homes like earthships benefit from the ground’s mass and cooling but often have moisture issues from that very same ground contact. Dealing with that extra moisture more than offsets the “free” cooling in most cases.
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