What is evaporative cooling? With the fluctuating weather patterns in Australia, particularly Melbourne, keeping your home cool during the summer season isn’t always easy.
Climate control within your home has significantly evolved over the last decade and they can also look aesthetically pleasing within the home. In this market insight we discuss more about evaporative cooling and its associated advantages and disadvantages.
What is evaporative cooling?
Evaporative cooling uses air and water to cool a room. If you jump in a swimming pool on a hot day and then hope out and feel the wind pass your body, it cools you down. Evaporative cooling uses the same technique. The water creates cool air and lets it integrate naturally throughout your home.
These systems work by converting the hot outside air into water vapour. With a water tank at the base of the unit, the air is cooled by filtering the outside air through wet filter pads. Once cooled and humidified, the air is then pumped back into the home.
Where is it installed?
The evaporative cooling system is installed on the roof of your home. Once the air is cooled by the unit, it then enters the home via ducts or vents in the ceiling. In most cases they are a squared vent that you can direct angles for the air to go, while you can also close the vent if its in a room that you won’t be using.
What are the advantages of evaporative cooling?
Environmentally friendly
It uses over half as much electricity as split system conditioning units or refrigerated coolers. This means they also use less energy consumption which also enhances the sustainability of your home. It is also a fair point to consider, the home will cooled by humidified air in comparison to air conditioners that release a chemical reaction to cool.
Cost effective and low maintenance
They aren’t super cheat to install, but they are much less if you installed a split system in each room or bought ducted refrigerated cooling. They are generally low maintenance so its rather cost effective easy to maintain. It’s recommended to service it every two years to maximise its performance and longevity, but its often less priced between $150 – $300 to do so. If you are installing it to a second hand home, its less invasive to your home as its placed in the roof. This can also reduce the need of renovating the home.
What are the disadvantages of evaporative cooling?
It provides cooling, but not heating
Unfortuantely the system only provides a solution for cooling the home. Many new homes install a separate ducted heating option at the same time. Ducted heating can go through the floor ceiling or floor. It’s more common to see it installed in the roof. It has a smaller circular vent that is often located next to the evaporative cooling vent.
Limited climate control
Unfortunately its limited in its solution to control different temperatures in different rooms. Fans, split systems and refrigerated cooling have better flexibility to do this.
The system requires servicing
Filter pads are need to be replaced every two years as they get dirty from the pollution and/or dust from outside the home. They are excessively expensive, but you do need to maintain a routine service to ensure it doesn’t break down or get damaged.
What to do next?
Heating and cooling is a very important element when designing a home. Keeping your home comfortable and convenient all year round plays a large influence on your daily happiness.
If you’d like to learn more about building a home, please don’t hesitate to contact us. There are many things that can be tailored from cooling and heating plus other fixture and fittings. We would welcome the opportunity to help with your property purchase. Our YouTube channel and Market Insights also provide a wealth of information to assist you with many areas relating to property.
While we have taken care to ensure the information above is true and correct at the time of publication, changes in circumstances and legislation after the displayed date may impact the accuracy of this article. If you want to learn more please contact us. We welcome the opportunity to assist you.
November 2023
