Cooling

How They Work

Evaporative coolers sit on the roof of your house. They work by saturating filter pads in water and then blowing air from outside the house through these wet pads. Blowing the air through the pads cools the air while filtering out pollen, dust and other pollutants. This cold, clean air is then blown through strategically placed ducts to fill your whole home with a light, refreshing breeze.

Beware of evaporative cooling systems built with cheap plastic. Over time, this plastic can become brittle. The unit will then be liable to break, leaving you to sweat it out all summer.

Using Humidity

Because the evaporative method cools air by evaporating moisture into warm air to cool it down, it works best in dry weather. As a general rule, Melbourne’s humidity levels on a typical summer’s day are between 40-50%. The Melbourne climate is suited for evaporative cooling.

Conventional air conditioners work by recirculating air from inside the house and so work best with every door and window closed. Evaporative coolers, however, work by replacing the air inside your home with cooled air from the outside – doing this well requires some doors and windows to be open so that cool air can be kept blowing through the house. Ideally you should be replacing all the air in the home every 2 minutes. We can advise you on how many doors and windows you will need open to do this.

Cost Effectiveness

The combined water and electricity costs of running a typical evaporative cooler in Melbourne is between 10 and 25 cents an hour. This makes it a very affordable way to cool your home. Many customers will be able to beat the summer heat for under a dollar a day. With electricity prices having more than doubled in Melbourne since 2009, it’s more important than ever to keep an eye on running costs when arranging an evaporative cooling installation in Melbourne.

An evaporative cooling installation in Melbourne typically runs $3,000 – $5,000, depending on the size of your home.

This includes a warranty of between 3 and 10 years, depending on the evaporative cooling unit you install. The warranty usually covers everything except the filter pad. These usually need replacing every 7-12 years.