Managing Summer Humidity and your Evap Cooler

MANAGING HUMIDITY & YOUR EVAP COOLER

Here’s how to get the best from your evaporative cooling in humid weather

There’s no denying Evaporative is a cost effective and economically friendly, form of cooling.

So how does it work it’s wonders?

Evaporative cooling cools air by evaporating water. This is achieved by drawing in the fresh hot air from outside via a cooling unit on top of the roof. A pump circulates water from the reservoir onto cooling pads, which have been dampened by a water distribution system. The hot air is filtered through filter pads, the cooled dampened air is then pumped throughout the house via ductwork.

Evaporative coolers are a great form of air-conditioning when the outside temperature is hot and the humidity is below 30%. Because evaporative coolers work by pumping cooled moist air into the environment their effectiveness becomes substantially reduced with the increase of humidity.

They will continue to be moderately effective even if the humidity climbs between 30-50%,however, its performance will be reduced. Once the humidity exceeds 50% evaporative cooling becomes ineffective during the day.

Here’s what you can do

Follow these tips and your Evaporative Cooler will be working at maximum efficiency despite the challenging conditions.

1. Open Doors and Windows throughout

To ensure you are getting maximum effectiveness it is important to have as many door and window openings as possible to ensure optimal airflows so the hot air can be pushed out of the house.  A symptom of inadequate door openings and airflow is pooling water on walls and tiles.

2. Run the Evap Cooler on vent

The best way to use your evaporative cooler in the humid weather is to run it on vent, meaning you are just using the fan of the evap cooler to pump air throughout the house, you are not adding any additional water into the air. If you turn your cooler to “cool” additional water will be pumped into the air.  Unfortunately, if this is done during the day you do run the risk of pumping unwelcome hot air into the house.

In humid weather evaporative cooling is most effective in the evenings when the sun goes down, running the cooler on vent will help to get a good night’s sleep.

3. Ensuring you have the correct sized unit

A crucial factor is ensuring your cooler is sized correctly for optimal airflow, the better the airflow the better the cooling, for this reason Melbourne Heating and Cooling only install the largest cooler to the average Melbourne home, at times we do quote second largest to e.g. the top level of double storey houses or to very small homes or units. We can help ascertain if your Evaporative Cooler is the correct size. For a quotation on upsizing your cooler or a service call make a booking now.