How Evaporative Coolers Work

If you have ever experienced sitting beside a lake or river on a hot day, you know how pleasant the feeling of a breeze blowing across the surface feels as it brushes across your face: cool, crisp. This is the principle of evaporative cooling: as the hot air moves over the cooler surface of the water, the air loses heat and becomes colder through evaporation (a process that absorbs heat).

This same principle can work to cool your home using an appliance called an evaporative cooler, also known as a “swamp cooler.” Evaporative coolers in Greenwood Village, CO can serve as a substitute to a standard central air conditioner that uses Freon. To learn more about the potential of an evaporative cooler for your house, call Bell Plumbing and Heating. Since 1926, we’ve helped keep homes cooled down with the best technology available, and we install the top-of-the-line Breezair Evaporative Cooler series.

What an evaporative cooler does

In the simplest sense, an evaporative cooler is a device that acts as that cool lake surface for the air entering your house, lowering its temperature. An evaporative cooler is often placed at the top of a home, where a fans draws in warm outdoor air and moves it into the ventilation system. As this air passes through the evaporative cooler, it crosses over a series of damp pads which are connected to a water pump that keeps them always moistened. The air loses its heat due to evaporation from passing over these pads, and then enters the home much cooler than before—and drawing significantly less power than a refrigerant-driven AC. This also means the home receives fresh outdoor air, rather than circulating the same stale indoor air, as happens with a conventional air conditioner.

The current Breezair evaporative coolers have a built-in drainage system to remove the warmed-up water and keep the system clean. This makes the Breezair easier to maintain and more worry-free than other evaporative coolers. The Breezair also comes with the Breezair Water Manager to monitor water quality to keep impurities out of the system—which results in a longer lifespan for the system. (Breezair guarantees their coolers for 24 years!)

Possible drawbacks of evaporative coolers

Evaporative coolers do not work everywhere and for all homes. For example, despite the nickname, these “swamp coolers” would not work well in a swamp at all! High humidity reduces evaporation within the system, so they are better for dry climates. And if you have concerns about moisture levels in your home, then an evaporative cooler might not be right for you. Consult with HVAC professionals to see if one of these systems is a wise idea for installation.

Whatever your comfort needs, we have an AC system that will meet it.

You can learn more about the Breezair line of evaporative coolers for Greenwood Village, CO homes with a call to Bell Plumbing and Heating.