Coincidently, I found a study by the department of power simulating the yearly power consumption of separate cooling systems in a prototype house in Borrego Springs, California. More recent development of two-stage evaporative coolers resolves most of those issues. Groundwater, for example, is often at a reliable low temperature and can be used for cooling, either through a heat exchanger or indirectly by using it as a heat sink for a conventional AC compressor. Many other factors influence comfort and can be tweaked to improve it; this house was not ideally oriented, with its long axis north-south and prime living areas facing west. Evaporative coolers are fading away. I bought a supply of colorful plug fuses since they burned out fairly often. Theres huge room for improvement in the technology of AC. The unit was constructed of sheet metal and some low-cost Chinese parts, including a motor that failed and had to be replaced at our expense. 0000002196 00000 n Under these conditions, the unit can Traditionally this was home. Arizonans steadily have moved away from using the sometimes noisy, always drippy evaporative coolers, even though they may reduce energy bills.. Although energy-efficiency advocates have been singing the praises of evaporative coolers for years, the tide seems to have turned away from these devices. 0000001673 00000 n 0000001897 00000 n [BTW. home. 0000007508 00000 n [Originally published June 5, 2016, at JebKinnison.com. This is how they become known as swamp The fungus and microbial issues of old-style swamp coolers have been dealt with by a variety of automated purging and cleaning methods, though some disinfection and annual maintenance is still a good idea. 2548 0 obj <> endobj Water is pumped through the inside trailer water that is left on you evaporates and cools you off. This ensures consistent performance, high efficiency and significant energy savings. The size of these units is expressed in cubic feet per minute (cfm). Randazzo continued, New housing developments are limiting coolers use on roofs. This cool water is then transferred to a high efficiency heat exchanger (over which the primary outdoor air is passed) to deliver the first stage of cooling with no additional moisture; this is indirect evaporative cooling. In its simplest form, a fan blows hot dry air over a medium soaked with water. : ZV:I,5L6p8N2*;=Y But the next owner didnt understand how the units worked and relied on the conventional AC units. 0000002900 00000 n This is sufficient cooling capacity for up to 1,700 quadrate feet of living space. 45w7NeqdPD@h[aS-"Wh')>)T=H=H1F + ;; I hate to say this, but if you are going to [pay to] have us service it twice a year, you are better off buying a high-efficiency AC system, Donley said.. The same principle can be used to cool your At its heart, Air2O uses a two stage indirect evaporative cooling solution. In order for the ideas to function effectively, the pressure must be relieved by occasion a few windows a merge of inches, or installing an exhaust duct or pressure operated damper in the attic or an covering wall. 0000008999 00000 n An evaporative cooler gets its cooling power from water instead of refrigerant. This system consists of a sump (reservoir) with a float valve, a pump, pads, and a fan. These systems do not add moisture to the air supplied to ], [This follows up on the previous post, This is Not My Beautiful House. (LogOut/ A traditional air conditioner uses electricity to run a compressor which pumps refrigerant to cool The air is then further cooled as it passes the second cooling stage; direct evaporative cooling. Donley explained that most people just tired of climbing on the roof in the spring to clean and activate their cooler, and getting up there again in the fall to clean it and seal it off. 0000108239 00000 n By comparison, the two stage volatile cooler consumed 667 kWh of electricity for a seasonal cooling bill of , or 79% less than the air conditioner. Built in 2003, by the standards of the time it was well-insulated and efficient. Engineering had shrunk to one key engineer, and the company went out of business soon after. air raising its' relative humidity. By using outside air in a first stage to cool one side of the medium, but exhausting the now-moister air and then drawing in more outside air to pass over the already-cooled moist medium on the other side, the air can be cooled more with less addition of humidity. dont let anyone tell you that theres a water shortage and that evaporative cooling will make it worse; fossil fuel power plants use more water to produce the additional power needed for conventional AC than evaporative cooling uses. raise the humidity of the indoor air to unacceptable levels. This lowers their cooling capacity. the 0000001122 00000 n Air2O has a unique ability to adapt and become ahybrid cooling system, incorporating traditional refrigerant or chilled water-cooling coils. startxref Like most GBA readers, Proctor is a strong advocate for the use of energy-efficient HVAC equipment, so his love of evaporative coolers isnt too surprising. For these systems to work there must be a free flow of air out of the home. Coolers are a do-it-yourself project, Donley said. water 0000008622 00000 n This basic system can be used to cool the home but it has some limitations. 0000117651 00000 n According to Randazzo, almost every Phoenix home had an evaporative cooler in 1940. The problems with direct evaporative coolers are overblown, notes Proctor. Also, comfort depends on many factors; temperature, humidity, moving air, radiation temperature (easily noticed in winter when it can feel cold at an apparently comfortable temperature because cold walls or windows soak up thermal radiation.) 0000011670 00000 n Using the mean California sell electric rate (2007) of .1435 per kWh, the resulting cost is 6. It does, however, result in such high marginal costs for larger houses that solar power, as currently subsidized, is more than competitive for the highest-tier rates. 0000007362 00000 n For a while, the OASys was being manufactured by Speakman. endstream endobj 2587 0 obj<>/W[1 1 1]/Type/XRef/Index[111 2437]>>stream home. The water runs through the pads, which are traditionally made from aspen 0000101402 00000 n By 2010, however, less than 10% of Phoenix homeowners had an evaporative cooler. This project wasnt terribly expensive and eliminated 80% of the power used for AC, keeping most of the project house cool and comfortable at very low cost. 0000006017 00000 n The attic must be properly ventilated to prevent excessive moisture. Until the units are mass-produced by a consumer products company that designs them for ease of use, they wont be practical for most people. relative humidity is above 50% these units are less effective. This is added. moisture A smart person can handle this, and until now, most whole-house fans have been controlled by a simple switch and the strategic opening and closing of windows. 0000108427 00000 n means Please press START to find the proper size cooler for your home. policy. 0000100548 00000 n Because of poor sales, however, manufacturing was discontinued. The general problem of cooling can be approached using a variety of sources and sinks available in the environment. Most of us have felt the effects of evaporative cooling. The technical term for swamp coolers is evaporative coolers. The fan pulls outdoor air through the pads where it is cooled and The two basic types of these units are direct and indirect evaporative coolers. Many articles on evaporative coolers mention the OASys, an energy-efficient appliance that was developed by engineers at the Davis Energy Group in Davis, California. 0000005642 00000 n 0000008082 00000 n The advantage two stage coolers have over conventional, single stage models is the yield of cool air with 10%-30% less humidity (depending on your climate). distributes it to the pads. %%EOF 0000082998 00000 n A reporter for The Arizona Republic, Ryan Randazzo, described the trend in a 2010 article titled Once-Common Evaporative Coolers Are Disappearing from Phoenix-Area Homes. Randazzo wrote, Now the metal boxes atop homes are rare, done in by a combination of cheap and increasingly energy-efficient air-conditioning and the time and expense of maintaining the coolers. and then is supplied to the duct system. Indirect evaporative units replace the pads with a heat exchanger. Website designed and developed by Seamless Ideas. When hot, dry air comes into contact with water, the air loses some of it's heat to the water. In the first stage the air is precooled by the indirect method. cooling. One source comments that use of evaporative cooling for a typical house results in additional water usage of about a shower per day, implying it would strain water resources; but since Southwestern homes typically use many times that amount on landscaping irrigation, and generation of additional electricity for conventional AC would use as much, additional water use is not really an issue.]. When your project calls for the most efficient and environmentally responsible cooling system, Air2O is the world leading next generation hybrid air conditioning system with unparalleled performance and eco credentials. yZ",e(JAK>$9 y ~(b[a2dP%92!e(G4$Yhnevtg9Y-$]* &)d%R2".X9/Zmm2e%j} wK}CCLg'msHwB El+WI' 2548 40 Cooler 0000004830 00000 n This unit uses both direct and indirect evaporative The float this It worked well. xref A set of automated shades with a smart controller which can respond to conditions would handle that. To offset this, a pre-cooling, or indirect stage, was added. the However, based on the power cost comparison above, without taking into catalogue future rate increases, a two stage cooler would pay for itself in less than 8 years while interesting 79% less fossil fuel. The best designs for passive solar heating and cooling have the house laid out east-west, with a large southern overhang sized to allow in winter sun and keep out summer sun. turn causes the water to evaporate (change from a liquid to a gas). Evaporating water cools the medium, which cools the air passing over it, which meanwhile picks up some moisture. Some technical manuals and files from the Speakman Oasys Air2O CRS-2500 project: Air2O CRS-2500 Specification Manual 20110101, PalmSprings [Excel document on evaporative cooling potential in Palm Springs, CA]. 0000005475 00000 n per 0 To decide if The water vapor is absorbed into xb```b``e`c``} @Qf&GG) ,\Zs~F7eu5oQ+(Zdx#=a> n=umvk[ACe56,1Lf,1bD,:&,Ii`i0&SrazVn(@Qm)8:=!KKbQ[']zh#HHf=p0Ft4 /LjId Ji`,pe3L%bYCb `YYT61?3a`bb|XP8?cWPQ&BfK'32+H1,eX s&3$3(20H3 IHgLe '=; cx Read about what we do with the data we gather and the rules you agree to by using 0000006934 00000 n This system has a higher capacity and still maintains a comfortable humidity level. endstream endobj 2561 0 obj<> endobj 2562 0 obj<> endobj 2563 0 obj<> endobj 2564 0 obj<>stream The air loses some of its' heat to the units. The former owners were doing what most people do, shutting off AC in most of the house and using it sparingly in the areas they actually live in; this kept their bills down to $400/month or so, averaged year-round. In a desert climate, outside air at midday can be at 110 F and less than 10% humidity; the wet-bulb temperature (the temperature a thermometer registers when it is cooled by a soaked medium after air is blown over it) can be below 50 F. These simple evaporative coolers, known as swamp coolers, were widely used in the desert Southwest until cheap AC units and the bad reputation of swamp coolers for high maintenance and growth of microorganisms in the medium led to their replacement by conventional refrigerative AC. the Today there are special ducts that are mounted in the ceiling and open to allow the air to escape to The stages of a two stage cooler are described as "indirect" for the first stage, and "direct" for the second stage. There were 15-20 shades on the east and west sides of the house to adjust as solar incidence changes. Two stage volatile coolers are most often installed directly into an covering wall or at ground level supported by a small concrete pad. endstream endobj 2549 0 obj<>>>/LastModified(D:20040413113130)/MarkInfo<>>> endobj 2551 0 obj<>/Font<>/XObject<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageC/ImageI]/ExtGState<>>>/StructParents 0>> endobj 2552 0 obj<> endobj 2553 0 obj<> endobj 2554 0 obj<> endobj 2555 0 obj[/Indexed 2557 0 R 255 2577 0 R] endobj 2556 0 obj/DeviceGray endobj 2557 0 obj[/ICCBased 2573 0 R] endobj 2558 0 obj<> endobj 2559 0 obj<> endobj 2560 0 obj<>stream The new two stage volatile coolers have successfully taken the "swamp" out of swamp cooler but may face problems overcoming the image of its less comfortable predecessor; especially in light of a ,000 price tag.