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Everything You Need to Know About Evaporative Coolers
Keeping cool in the Denver summer isn’t an easy thing to do if you don’t have central air in your home. But evaporative coolers could be your solution. Below, you’ll find all of the information you need to know to decide whether this cooling tool is right for you.
What are evaporative coolers?
An evaporative cooler is an energy-efficient technology designed to cool your home. It does that by evaporating water into the air, thereby reducing its temperature.
How do evaporative coolers work?
Evaporative coolers pass outdoor air over water-saturated pads. This causes the water on the pads to start evaporating, which cools your home.
The U.S. Energy Department says that these coolers can reduce the air temperature in your home by 15 – 40 degrees (Fahrenheit).
Advantages of evaporative coolers
You may be able to save a good amount of money by choosing an evaporative cooler over a traditional air conditioning system.
These coolers cost about half as much to install as central air units. They also use about one-quarter of the energy that centralized A/C systems use.
Potential downsides
There are only really two potential downsides to this type of cooling technology. First, they only work in areas with low humidity. But that’s not a problem in the Denver area, thanks to our region’s dry summer climate.
Additionally, evaporative coolers sometimes need more maintenance than centralized A/C systems. But any extra maintenance costs are typically more than made up for in cost savings from installation and energy consumption.
Tips for getting the most out of your evaporative cooler
Keep your windows open slightly
Evaporative coolers need a steady airflow to function optimally. Leaving your windows open a few inches will make sure your machine has that.
Keep the tank full and pads wet
These systems also need a consistent supply of water to evaporate. You can minimize your machine’s inefficiency by making sure its water tank is always full and its pads are always wet.
Clean and maintain it regularly
If you want to improve the performance and lifespan of your machine, you need to take good care of it. That means following a regular schedule for both cleaning the system and having experts perform basic maintenance tasks on it.
Choosing a portable evaporative cooler
Portable evaporative coolers can be extremely handy if you want to keep a small area cool in the summer. These are smaller than standard units and you can carry them from room to room with you.
As you look at portable evaporative coolers, you’ll want to consider their cubic feet per minute (CFM) rating. This measurement shows how big of an area the machine can keep cool. The higher the CFM, the more space it will cover.
Northern Climate Control can help you get more out of your evaporative cooler
Northern Climate Control provides professional evaporative cooler maintenance and repair to residents of Littleton and the entire Denver Metro Area.
