Keeping your home environment cool and comfortable during the warm summer months can be difficult and sometimes expensive. Evaporative coolers offer an eco-friendly, healthy, and cost effective alternative to traditional air conditioning units. Evaporative coolers are also known as swamp coolers, desert coolers, or wet coolers. These coolers cool the air through the evaporation of water. Evaporation cooling systems work differently than a typical air conditioning system which use vapor compression or absorption refrigeration cycles.

How a Swamp Cooler Works

A swamp cooler works in a pretty simple way with a fan and a water-wetted pad. A small pump recirculates water from a sump (which is part of the cooler cabinet) to keep the pad wet. The fan draws outside air thorough the wet pad and makes the air more humid but colder. This is blown onto the house which forces the warm air inside to be forced out through open windows or through a vent in the attic. Air that travels through the house by an evaporative cooler is frequent and done at a high volume increasing humidity and improving comfort in your home. The temperature of the air can be dropped significantly through the transition of liquid water to water vapor or evaporation which can cool the air using much less energy than refrigeration.

Advantages to an Evaporative Cooler

Evaporative coolers are less expensive to install and are less expensive to operate. Typically they use 1/8 of power that central AC uses because power is only used by the fan and water pump. The water vapor is not recycled so there is no compressor which means it doesn’t consume most of the power like in closed-cycle refrigeration. There are also no special refrigerants, such as ammonia, sulfur dioxide or CFC’s that can be expensive to replace.

Evaporative Cooler Maintenance

Evaporation coolers are easy to maintain. The fan motor and the water pump are the only two mechanical parts which are both easy to repair at a low cost. There is a pad inside the cooler that acts as an effective air filter. This way of cooling the air has the added benefit of conditioning the air with more moisture which is beneficial to those living in the desert and extremely dry climates.

Window Mounted & Portable Evaporative Coolers

You will have to take the size of the unit into consideration to get the best results. An evaporative cooler that is too small for your area will have to work extra hard to keep the space cool and will waste energy and cost you more money. You can get a portable cooler that you will be able to move around your home. These are designed to cool small areas and not entire homes. If you have an issue with one room in particular you can opt for a cooler that is mounted on the window.

Air Conditioning Installation, Replacement, Inspections, Emergency Repairs, Tune Ups & Maintenance Services in Las Vegas Valley, Summerlin, North LV & Henderson Nevada

Evaporative coolers do have their downsides – they are not as effective or controllable as central air conditioners and they do require doors or windows to be left open. Even though they don’t have as many parts, they do require shut downs and draining in winter and start ups in summer. They also require changing the pads which can be expensive and they use much more water than central a/c units Before it gets too hot call Air Supply Air Conditioning & Heating to get more information on evaporative coolers and central air conditioners.