Evaporative coolers are already among the most efficient climate control systems in existence. They are simply less costly when considering your electricity bills and they are also excellent for the environment.
With that said, they can always be made more efficient. Barring that, you can maintain their original level of efficiency for as long as possible.
This is an important consideration since cutting down on utility costs means having more money for other things. There’s no reason to avoid doing what you can to keep your evaporative cooler from operating in optimum conditions either. The solutions are rather simple and can be done without much time or effort on your part.
Crack Your Windows Open
Evaporative cooling systems are not like air conditioners, where it would be best to make sure that every single crack or gap is covered up. Evaporative coolers work better when there is more air to work with.
As such, it would be good for you to keep a small gap between your windows to let air into the room. There’s no need to keep them open all the way, though, this would depend on how hot or breezy the current weather is.
If the air outside is too much, opening the window too wide would only allow the cooler indoor air to escape. This would be detrimental to the function of the cooler.
Regardless, the reason for this has to do with keeping fresh air coming from outside. This will help in dispersing the water vapour that the evaporative cooler is breathing out. As a result, it becomes easier to spread the cooler temperature all around the room. The best part is that it requires less energy to do so than simply using brute force for the whole thing.
The result is less power used, which lowers your electricity bill, while still enjoying the cooling effects of the system.
Consider The Seasons
Humidity is a major consideration when you are trying to take full advantage of the efficiency of evaporative coolers. It’s simply a matter of making the most of the opportunities that the seasons provide.
Ideally, you want your evaporative cooler to work at 70% humidity. That is to say, it would be more effective at cooling your surroundings when the days are dry rather than overly humid.
More to the point, too much humidity will make evaporating the water in your cooler more difficult. Even if it succeeds, the air would not cool as fast as it should.
If you are living in an area where the humidity fluctuates at certain times of the year, it would be a good idea to plan out your use of your system. If you have a monitoring device that tells you how humid your surroundings are, this would be even better. You can find them pretty much anywhere and you can even order them online at incredibly cheap prices.
This would be a good and simple approach to ensure that your evaporative cooler works as intended. More to the point, you will have a much better idea of the condition of your home.
Knowing Your Evaporative Cooler’s Functions
Treating your evaporative cooler like it was an air conditioner would be a mistake. Their functions might be similar, but they are certainly not the same types of systems. Knowing exactly how your evaporative cooler does what it does will make it a lot easier to make maintain or increase its efficiency.
For example, letting it run for 15 minutes before you turn on the blower would make it a lot more effective at cooling the air around you.
This is because an evaporative cooler actually has to convert moisture into water vapour. The water vapour is then expelled from inside the cooler out into the surrounding air. They will bind with the air molecules to make them heavier. It’s much like how rain is formed, which is quite effective at removing heat.
DIY Care
While it is not wise to tamper with your evaporative cooler in any significant way that would affect its internal systems, you could do some minor cleaning and maintenance. For example, you could ensure that there is no build-up of dust or gunk both inside and outside your cooler.
You could also see to it that your cooling pads are always wet and are capable of storing moisture.
This becomes more important as you use your cooler since time can make the pads more and more brittle. They will eventually need to be replaced, but you can at least extend their lifespan as much as possible.
Caring for your evaporative cooler might not seem like much over the short term, but the benefits do stack. Your efforts can extend the peak performance of your system by months or even years.
Professional Maintenance & Installation
There’s a lot to be said about having a professional do a job once and do it right, rather than have to go back to it again and again. Not only would it ultimately cost less, but it would also mean fewer headaches on your part.
It might be tempting to install your evaporative cooling system yourself, but this could lead to disaster. Unless you have some form of relevant training or experience, the best thing to do is to leave the installation and the more sensitive maintenance practices to the professionals.
This will ensure that your evaporative cooler will keep functioning as intended. Mistakes can be avoided that could affect its efficiency and you will ultimately not need to replace it for much longer.
Conclusion
Efficiency is the name of the game when dealing with evaporative coolers. You save money when you use them to cool your home because they use less energy. However, you can save even more money when you actually know how to take full advantage of them.
When you put into practice the points discussed here, you will see tangible reductions with what your utility typically costs. Over the years, those savings will only increase.