9 Ways Your New Evaporative Cooler will Benefit You
Although evaporative cooling remains one of the older forms of climate control which exists today, it also happens to be one of the most beneficial.
It offers a variety of advantages over traditional air conditioners, all of which will keep more money in your pocket and less pollutants in the air.
But before we dive in and talk about swamp cooler benefits, let's discuss briefly how they work.
Overview - How Evaporative Coolers Work
A portable evaporative cooler uses evaporation to help cool down the surrounding air.
- In most evaporative coolers, the primary piece that makes it all work is the pump.
- This is one of those parts of an evaporative cooler that will circulate water from a reservoir towards a cooling pad, which as a result, will become increasingly wet.
- A fan will then draw outside air and push it through the moistened cooling pad.
- As the air is passed along here, it will get cooled down via evaporation.
The key to making this process work is to ensure that the cooling pad remains constantly saturated with water at all times while the device is operating (if the water can't cool down the air, then evaporation can't occur, and it won't release cold air in return).
- Both the size of the fan and the motor of the portable evaporative cooler play a role in the quality of airflow being delivered.
- As long as these parts are well-maintained and/or replaced when they need to be, the lifespan of an evaporative cooler can extend very far.
Now that you've gained some general knowledge about the parts of an evaporative cooler, let's take a look at some of the primary advantages to having one in your home.
Benefit #1: Eco-friendly
Refrigerated cooling not only causes the air to become dry, but it also uses different chemicals during operation, some of which make their way into the environment, and even damage the atmosphere.
Evaporate cooling, on the other hand, is based completely on natural processes (in this case, air being cooled by water).
- This means that the air being released from the system is going to be far safer for the environment, since no foreign chemicals are going to be released from it.
- It also means that the air being released from a portable evaporative cooler won't dry out the air in your home, or cause your eyes or throat to become irritated.
- Evaporative cooler benefits means that you can keep the doors and windows in your home open, without worrying about losing air flow.
The air released from these systems is never re-circulated, and will replace stale air with fresh hour, hundreds of times per hour.
Benefit #2: Inexpensive to Install
The cost associated with installing an evaporative cooler is very inexpensive compared to the cost associated with installing a regular air conditioner.
The average cost of having an evaporative cooler installed in your home by a licensed contractor is about $700 to $1,100 - some of the more expensive ones can cost about $2,000 to $3,000 (but rarely more).
Even the most expensive evaporative coolers cost dramatically less than the average air conditioner, which will typically cost anywhere from $6,000 to $18,000 to install.
Benefit #3: Minimal Operation Costs
One of the best swamp cooler benefits that you'll find is that dramatic decrease in operational costs that you'll be required to pay.
- Since these systems only require enough electricity to power their pumps and fan units, you'll end up paying around 50% less in operational costs each month.
- Regular air conditioners require a lot of electricity, mainly because they need to power many different parts, including air blowers, pumps, and compressors.
On average, home owners should expect to pay anywhere from $200 to $1,400 in repair costs for an evaporator.
Keep in mind that an air conditioner can cost three times this amount of fix. Some air conditioners might not even be worth fixing after they've been wore down. In the long run, you'll be able to save a significant sum of money on an evaporative cooler in your home.
Benefit #4: Easy to Maintain
Evaporative coolers aren't complex in design. Their two main parts include the water pump and the fan motor, both of which can easily be replaced if they go bad.
Plus, with so many video tutorials and DIY guides on how to fix these systems available on the internet today, you might even be able to fix it yourself.
Maintenance:
- Evaporative cooler parts aren't complicated or costly, which can be important if the system ever breaks.
- At most, you should plan on having your evaporative cooler serviced about twice per year. Granted, this number can be more or less depending on how frequently you use it.
- If you decide to maintain it yourself, you'll be happy to hear that it will be quite simple.
- Some things that you might need to do include removing old parts and replacing them with new ones, draining and flushing reservoirs, cleaning pump screens, replacing cracked tubing, or adding some motor oil.
All of these maintenance steps are straightforward, and will take little time out of your day.
If you choose to hire someone to perform these maintenance checkups for you, then you'll be happy to hear that they are budget-friendly as well.
Benefit #5: Fresher Air
Fresher air is one of the primary evaporative cooler benefits that you will be able to experience.
There's no doubt that a high volumetric and consistent air flow rate through your home will be able to help eliminate airborne pathogens.
- When the age of the air in your home is younger, the chances are lessened that you'll breathe in stagnant air that has had more time to build up in bacterial or fungal concentration.
- Evaporative cooling helps increasing humidity, which, when you live in a dry climate, will help you breathe better.
- What a lot of people don't know is that the pad in evaporative coolers also serve as an effective filter (as long as they are properly maintained and cleaned), which can help catch airborne contaminants before they can make their way into your lungs.
- They can even help remove urban ozone contaminants from the air, regardless of how dry the weather is. These contaminants tend to be quite abundant in dryer climates.
Overall, with fresher air, one can expect to feel healthier and experience fewer respiratory illnesses. This is especially useful if you live with anyone who has asthma or who has an upper respiratory illness.
In these cases, it's especially important that these individuals breathe as clean of air as possible, otherwise, their conditions could become worsened.
Benefit #6: Low CO2 Emissions
CO2, also referred to as "Carbon Dioxide" releases a collection of gases that can have a negative effect on the environment as well as on people.
Evaporative coolers release hardly any carbon dioxide, while air conditioners have been known to release these emissions in relatively large numbers.
So now only will you be helping the environment by producing less of these emissions, you'll inadvertently be helping yourself as well.
Keep in mind that evaporative coolers have a different range of CO2 emissions, but in general, all of them are kept to a minimum compared to other home cooling systems.
Benefit #7: Add Moisture to the Air
If you understand how evaporative coolers work, you know that they help increase the amount of moisture in the air.
- For people who live in dryer climates, this can become exceptionally helpful.
- One of the primary drawbacks of air conditioners is that they actually remove moisture from the air.
- Removing moisture from the air can make it difficult to breathe, and even cause your skin to become dry and crack.
Benefit #8: Allows for Open Doors and Windows
Amongst the other swamp cooler benefits that you should know is that you can leave your windows and doors open while the system is on.
Unlike air conditioners, which require you to keep windows and doors closed in order to maintain cold airflow, evaporative coolers provide you with more flexibility by allowing you to keep everything open.
- This ability to open up your home makes evaporative coolers an ideal option since they won't make you feel "trapped".
- An added benefit to this is that since you're able to open up your windows, it's less likely that the air in your home is going to become stagnant.
- And as you might have already guessed, air that's less stagnant is safer to breathe in.
Benefit #9: Quiet Operation
When trying to sleep at night, there's nothing more annoying than having an air conditioner that makes too much noise. And this can definitely cause you to experience a night of sleep that is less than satisfactory.
With evaporative coolers, you can experience a night of sleep that isn't affected by loud sounds.
In fact, most evaporative coolers are known to be exceptionally quiet, so much so, that you'll hardly notice that they are there.