Convair Evaporative Coolers

Evaporative coolers are an alternative to refrigerant style air conditioning and as the name suggests they use evaporation to cool a room. Put simply evaporative air cooling works by blowing warm air through moisture so that heat is lost from the air through evaporation. If you have ever had the pleasure of standing near a waterfall on a hot day then you will know that the air near the waterfall is cooler. This is in principle the same as an evaporative cooler. An evaporative cooler usually works by pumping water through pads designed to absorb moisture within the unit. A Fan then draws warm air from the room through the units and pads. This warm air leads to evaporation of the water in the pads which in turn increases the humidity of the room and cools the air. Because of this process evaporative coolers will have a stronger air cooling effect in a hot and dry environment. In a highly humid environment evaporative air cooling will have less of an effect because there is already moisture in the air.

There are many advantages to Evaporative air cooling. For one it is much more energy efficient to use an evaporative cooler instead of other air cooling methods as they use much less energy to run. You will find some claims that evaporative coolers can cost only 10% of the cost of running a more conventional central air conditioning system though it is probably more likely that an evaporative cooler will cost you around 25% of the cost of more conventional air conditioners to run. That is still a saving of 75% of your air cooling costs. They are also cheaper to install and so all round, evaporative air cooling will save you money. The air is also filtered to some extent as it passes through the pads and it doesn't keep stale air recirculating around the room. This filtering however means that the pads need to be checked for build up and sediment every now and then and the unit needs to be cleaned out from time to time. Another advantage of evaporative coolers is that they contain no refrigerant like many other air conditioning units. This lack of any refrigerants such as CFCs coupled with greater energy efficiency means that evaporative air cooling is an all round greener alternative to conventional air conditioning units as well as being cheaper to run.