How A Cooler Works

13 SEER Minimum

R22 Phase out.

Home Comfort

An evaporative cooler produces effective cooling by combining a natural process -- water evaporation -- with a simple, reliable air-moving system. Fresh outside air is filtered through the saturated evaporative media, cooled by evaporation, and circulated by a blower wheel.

Cooling Temperatures

An evaporative cooler will nearly always deliver air cooler than 80 degrees F. The chart below shows that an evaporative cooler will deliver 78 degree air under a wide variety of typical summertime climatic conditions.

In addition, the constant air movement created by an evaporative cooler lowers the temperature perceived by room occupants -- called the "effective temperature" -- by an additional 4 to 6 degrees below the "evaporatively cooled temperatures" shown in the chart.

Finally, an evaporative cooler works best in the hottest time of the day. This is because relative humidity drops quickly as temperature increases. For example, a morning relative humidity of 60 percent at 75 degrees will drop to only 31 percent when the afternoon temperature reaches 95 degrees.

Independent research confirms these results. A study of evaporative cooling by the prestigious Gordian Associates research organization concludes:

"In large areas of the United States, evaporative air cooling can provide essentially equivalent comfort conditions to a residential building but at about one-third of the energy consumption of mechanical air conditioning or a heat pump."

Energy Savings
An evaporative cooler consumes only one-fourth of the electrical energy required to operate a refrigerated air conditioning unit.

In fact, a typical whole-house evaporative cooler from Adobe Air requires two small electric motors totalling between 1/2 and 3/4 horsepower. A comparable refrigeration unit requires three electric motors with a combined horsepower of 3 1/2.

The Gordian Report on evaporative cooling notes:

"Evaporative coolers consume considerably less primary or resource energy than mechanical air conditioners or heat pumps. Evaporative coolers presently installed in the Western United States are estimated to save approximately 6 million barrels fuel oil equivalent per year in comparsion to alternative cooling systems."

Gordian Associates estimate that evaporative coolers could save up to 18 million barrels of fuel oil per year. With savings like that, installing an evaporative cooler can be an important contribution to energy conservation.

Energy Cost Savings

According to published figures, a 3 1/2 ton refrigeration unit consumes some 8,698 kilowatt hours (KWH) of electricity during a six-month cooling season. An evaporative cooler would require just 1,800 KWH to cool the same home. This translates into a potential energy savings of up to 6,898 KWH each cooling season! Dollar savings can be huge...

Health Benefits

With evaporative cooling, a complete air change occurs every one-to-three minutes. This offers a great health advantage over traditional refrigerated air conditioning, which employs a complicated "closed" system that recirculates the same stale dry air over and over.