Is an Evaporative Cooling System Right For Your Home? This Will Help You Decide!

Posted on: 27 April 2018

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Whilst traditional air conditioning systems are the most common way to cool the home today, evaporative cooliing -- cooling systems that use water to chill the air -- are becoming popular once again. To decide whether a traditional air conditioner or an evaporative cooler is better for you, you need to know more about the benefits and drawbacks of evaporative coolers. Here's what you should know. 

Evaporative Cooler Benefits

Evaporative coolers offer several significant advantages, including all of the following. 

Inexpensive: evaporative coolers are considerably less expensive than traditional air conditioners. If you're on a tight budget but still want your home to be comfortable throughout the summer months, you'll likely find that an evaporative cooler is an excellent choice. 

Cheap to operate: evaporative coolers are generally cheaper to operate than traditional air conditioners, which means not just a lower initial cost but also lower monthly costs on your power bill. Over time, this means that your savings just get better and better with an evaporative cooler. 

Minimal maintenance: evaporative coolers require little maintenance -- usually, just cleaning once per season -- whilst a traditional air conditioner may require more extensive maintenance. Traditional air conditioners need filter changes, duct cleaning, and maintenance of individual components every season. This means that it's much more time consuming and costly to maintain a traditional air conditioner than to maintain an evaporative cooler.

Evaporative Cooler Drawbacks

Whilst an evaporative cooler can be an excellent way to cool the home, it does have a few potential drawbacks to consider. Some of these drawbacks may include:

Moist air: evaporative coolers add moisture to the air, which means the air feels quite different than it does with a traditional air conditioner. Whilst some people quite like this, others find the moist air to feel uncomfortable. 

Total cooling capacity: evaporative coolers aren't able to lower the indoor temperature quite as much as traditional air conditioners can. However, they're usually quite sufficient to cool the average Australian home during the warmer months of the year. 

Best suited for only certain climates: whilst evaporative coolers are used in many climates across the globe due to their low cost, they're best suited for only hot and dry climates. This makes evaporative coolers an inferior choice in certain areas -- however, much of Australia has the hot and dry climate that evaporative coolers are perfectly suited for. 

For many Australians, an evaporative cooler is a great way to cool the home efficiently and cheaply. Talk to your HVAC contractor today to discuss whether it's the right choice for your home.