Some handy tips on how to use your evaporative air-conditioner correctly

Hi everyone, with summer just around the corner, we made a quick video for you so that you can meet our lead technician – Damian, and also so that you can find out more about what evaporative cooling is, and how to use it properly so that you can stay cool this summer.

We’ve covered things like the amount of energy they use, the correct fan settings to use on your air cooler and which windows you need to have open during the day and at night for your evap cooler to work at its best.

To find out more, hit the red play button below. To view subtitles for English and Italian, hit the little CC button or comments icon in the bottom right-hand corner of your the screen.

If you have tried all of these things and you find your evaporative cooler still isn’t working, there is a good chance it just needs a service which is something that we can help you with if you need.

More information on our servicing can be found here  or simply give us a quick call on (08) 6168 1681. We are always happy to help.

Full video transcript below. Playing time – 4 minutes and 15 seconds

What is evaporative cooling and how does your evaporative air conditioner work?

(00:01) Hi, my name is Damian from All Skills Evaporative and Gas. We are here today to talk to you about how to use your evaporative cooler correctly. I’ve been servicing evaporative coolers for 15 years, and I’ve been in thousands of homes and people are all making the same common mistakes affecting the performance of their evaporative cooler. Let’s identify what an evaporative cooler is and how they work. (00:30)

Now that we’ve established what evaporative cooling is and where it’s located, let’s talk about how they actually work. They generally just have a fan motor, this draws in the air, and then they have filter pads. So water saturates these pads and air comes through. These are the main components of what makes an evaporative cooler work.

Now, we’ve established (01:01) what evaporative coolers are, where they are located and how they kind of work. Let’s talk about their energy consumption. You might not know that some common household appliances use the same power. We’ve got this food processor here. This is 750 Watts of consumption. We’ve also got a hairdryer. This is also 750 Watts of consumption. So then we look at the fan for the evaporative cooler. This too is 750 Watts of consumption (01:30). So energy used for evaporative cooling shouldn’t be a concern. It’s the cheapest way to cool your home.

It’s also important to know that fan motors come in all different sizes. They range from 315 Watts all the way up to 1500 Watts. It really depends on the size of your home. The first mistake that people make is they always use their evaporative cooler on the slowest fan speed setting, thinking there is a relation to fan speed and energy consumption. This isn’t true. So we recommend that you try turning your evaporative (02:01) to its highest setting, and then back at off if you start getting cold.

We’ve touched on what’s going on, on the outside with your evaporative cooler. Let’s talk about what causes the biggest amount of confusion, and that’s what windows you need to have open. With evaporative cooling air has to get out as quick as it’s coming in, so you need the right amount of window space open. If you’ve got too much open, the hot breeze can just blow in. If you don’t have enough open, the floors get sticky and damp. To make it easy, I’ve just broken it down to (02:30) daytime use and nighttime use.

Daytime use is a little bit different because we’ve got the heat load from the sun coming in. So what I do is I shut every external window in the house. I open every internal door and I open the windows at the furthest point of the room that I’m in. What actually happens is when you turn the air con on, air comes out of every vent and it makes its way through the passages through the room that you are in and out the window. So you are amplifying the amount of air that’s coming through. Night-time use is pretty easy. The sun has (03:01) gone down, there is no heat load. So it really doesn’t matter what windows you’ve got open. You can do whatever you like.

After you’ve tried these methods, if your evaporative cooler still isn’t working, there is a good chance it just needs a service, which is something that we can do. During the service process, we often find that filter pads have worn out, the pump is not working or the solenoid is not letting in water. These are all crucial to the effect of the evaporative cooler. We specialise in servicing and repair of all the major brands, Cool Breeze, Breeze Air, (03:30) Braemar, Celair, Bonaire, Brivis, just to name a few. So I go to our website, All Skills Evaporative and Gas. You can see our full price range, and you can also make contact with us.