Evaporative coolers, the affectionate term for an evaporative cooler, can help you save a lot of money on your electricity bills during hot summer months. A evaporative cooler is a more efficient alternative to an air conditioner that uses near-constant electrical energy to keep the refrigerant moving through condenser coils. Instead, it uses the natural process called evaporation to cool your home. An evaporative cooler uses electricity to drive a fan that cools your room.
Here are the facts.
1. In Dry Climates, Use Your Evaporative Cooler
People make the biggest mistake with their evaporative cooler by trying to use it during humid weather. This is a mistake that will not work. An evaporative cooler’s purpose is to reduce the temperature by allowing fresh water to evaporate into dry air. Water evaporates naturally, which lowers the temperature. The fan then blows cold air where it is needed.
2. Seasonally Use Your Evaporative Cooler
You can still try evaporative cooling even if you don’t live in the desert. These small appliances allow you to easily move your cooling from one room to another and also make it easier to store the appliance when it is not in use.
3. Open The Windows
Evaporative cooling is a way to “unlearn” things you already know about air conditioning. Evaporative coolers work best in open, insulated environments. A evaporative cooler creates moist air in your house as the water evaporates.
4. Run A Dehumidifier
A dehumidifier can be added to your cooling system if it is too hot to open windows. The dehumidifier pulls excess moisture from the air and stores it in a tank until it’s empty.
5. Grow A Green Thumb
You can also reduce humidity by adding houseplants to your home that absorb as much moisture as possible. Many plants evolved to get most or all of their water through the air, rather than the soil.
6. Try Positioning
Portable evaporative coolers that are smaller and more portable can be used to cool a single room only, not your entire house. For maximum efficiency, be sure to check the recommended area for the unit.
7. Prime The Pads First
It takes time for the evaporative cooler pads to absorb water when you first turn on your evaporative cooler. They will wick water more readily from the tank once they have been wet. However, it may take up to 15 minutes before they become fully saturated. Before you turn on the fan, fill the water reservoir. Give the pads time to get the job done. You won’t have to waste your time blowing hot air around before the machine has fully cooled.
8. Use Cold Water
Although you might believe that hot water evaporates faster because it is closer to the boiling point, which is when water disintegrates into the air super fast, cool water works better.
9. Skip The Ice
However, cold water has limited effects. Although 50 degrees was the ideal temperature in the study, adding ice to cool the water to the 30s and 40s is not a good idea. Because the ice must melt before it can evaporate, this takes time. This means that you are not improving the efficiency of the process of evaporation, which is what most of your cooling happens in this system.
10. Keep Your Cool
A evaporative cooler works best when it is properly maintained and cleaned. Make sure you inspect your unit every summer before you use it and then put it away for winter.
