is evaporative cooling worth it?

andrew_123 · Mar 12, 2008 3:20 pm

is evaporative cooling worth it? it costs about $6000 to install in the house we are lookign at building, but is it actually worth it? or should we just get a normal split system air con ?? PS the hosue is 36 squares.

ADVICE PLEASE! HELP

PhoenixStar · Mar 12, 2008 6:10 pm

nzfiona · Mar 12, 2008 6:50 pm

Depends where you live. We had an uber-split-system in our house in Brisbane, due to the humidity. It was GREAT.

Here in Melbourne, we're going for ducted evaporative, because of the (generally) dry climate. It's also cheaper to run and the greenhouse emissions are less than refrigerated cooling.

Fiona

rellie · Mar 12, 2008 6:53 pm

We have it and wouldn't be without it

Yak_Chat · Mar 13, 2008 12:19 am

$6K . Get another quote to compare.
And as per above -in a dry climate - works like a treat.
In the tropics - forget it.
Just enjoy the moisture in your skin :wink:

Steve

PhoenixStar · Mar 13, 2008 12:32 am

Andrew re: your pricing, how many points are they quoting for?

mattwalker · Mar 13, 2008 12:40 am

36sqs for $6K is a reasonable quote for a good "name brand" system.

That should get you 10 point and an RF controller as well.

You might want to look at zoning the unit for a bit more efficiency.

nzfiona · Mar 13, 2008 6:22 pm

We were offered an eight-point evaporative system by our builder at $2000, as an incentive to go with them LOL. Worked, funnily enough....

It'll be a Bonaire. Brivis is another popular brand, however we've been advised to go with the former, as it's overall better value (costs a bit more, though).

Fiona

grace_slick · May 23, 2008 5:15 pm

My parents' place in Melbourne has evaporative cooling. It's excellent. It's not as freezing and it's nice to not be so drying as standard a/c.

to_do_list · May 23, 2008 6:16 pm

mattwalker

36sqs for $6K is a reasonable quote for a good "name brand" system.

That should get you 10 point and an RF controller as well.

You might want to look at zoning the unit for a bit more efficiency.

Agree on the price....

The advice we received on installing an evaporative system was that zoning is not a good idea as you really need the air movement throughout the house. We subsequently shut vents off in rooms and the house was certainly less comfortable.

andrew_123

is evaporative cooling worth it? it costs about $6000 to install in the house we are lookign at building, but is it actually worth it? or should we just get a normal split system air con ?? PS the hosue is 36 squares.

I hate refrigerated air con with a passion - many of friends have it as well as my parents and brother. The air is always freezing. When it's summer I like to dress for summer rather than dreading sitting in a chilly bin.

I prefer evaporative, you have to have a single door or window open (but only one) and therefore the house "airs" whereas with refrigerated you need to shut the house for it too be effective. When you have kids going in and out the door evaporative works better.

It will never pull a 42 degree down to 22 degrees the best you can really expect on these days is high 20's but most of the rest of summer it serves well.

Also it's far less costly to run with the only electrical device being a fan and occasional water pump. In our personal circumstances evaporative was the only financially sensible solution for the capital cost of the gear and to be able to cool the entire house.

cyclone · May 23, 2008 9:36 pm

If the dew point is over 20c, they don't work that well.
It all depends on location as well

grace_slick · May 23, 2008 10:30 pm

I wanted to get an evaporative portable cooler last Summer but hardly anyone up here in QLD stocks them and apparently this is because they're virutally useless because of the high humidity levels up here. They would just make everything wet and thus mouldy and even more humid and unpleasant.

to_do_list · May 23, 2008 10:54 pm

grace_slick

I wanted to get an evaporative portable cooler last Summer but hardly anyone up here in QLD stocks them and apparently this is because they're virutally useless because of the high humidity levels up here. They would just make everything wet and thus mouldy and even more humid and unpleasant.

Evaporative air is absolutely useless in QLD or on high humidity days wherever you are...but why would you need it in QLD...beautiful one day, perfect the rest or so we Southerners have been lead to believe :wink:

kexkez · May 23, 2008 11:21 pm

as everyone else has said it really depends on where you are. We had evaporative in perth and loved it.; We have a reverse cycle type split thing in this rental and i don;t like it. We are planning to go evaporative again for our new house. I find refridgerative to drying and like having a window/door open.

Yak_Chat · May 24, 2008 7:49 pm

GS - Evaporative on the gold coast will be next to useless.

Move in enjoy living your own house (hey it'll be winter by then) and go from there.
Steve

grace_slick · May 24, 2008 7:59 pm

Well, the only reason we really looked into it is cause we rent and can't install a/c (which we wouldn't want anyway as it's so freezing and drying), but we have no ceiling fans or anything other than pedestal fans, and it's fine most of the year, but once it gets to about January and outside temps are above 27-28 degrees most days, the inside eventually gets to over 30 degrees and does not go down until the outside drops to below 25 for a few days. We're only 5 houses from the beach but because of whatever reasons, the sea breeze just refuses to actually come inside. Unless it is really windy, it just stays hot in here.

Our new place has ceiling fans which we're very happy about.

House-To-Be · May 28, 2008 1:34 pm

We are building with PD, double storey almost 42 sq's. Our quote was $5,400 with 9 points which we thought was an okay quote. Brand we are having is Bonaire.

Anyway back in January I went through the display of our house and it was a stinking hot 35 degree day. The evap cooling was on and I went upstairs and nearly died, it was like an oven and awful. I was actually quite upset as I thought next summer we'll have to camp out downstairs on the hot nights! Anyway turned out that some silly bugger had turned on the heating........sales guy fixed up the thermostat and we waited about 20-25mins and upstairs was fantastic, it cooled down the whole area. Downstairs was cool already so that sold it for me! Roll on next summer!!

Also looked into the zoning and was advised against it, better to have whole house on and air moving through it. We've zoned the ducted heating though but that's a different conversation!

Hope this helps.

Toni

Scribe · Jun 30, 2008 7:34 pm

Is it true that for double storey houses the evap cooling outlets only need to be on the top floor with the air flowing down the stairs? How many points would we need - one per room or does it work differently?

Our builder quoted $6500 but recommend we install it ourselves later.
I had assumed it would be more difficult that way.

claego · Jul 02, 2008 10:06 pm

i have asked the builder to quote for 6 points and cost 4300 which i think is quite good... but they actually don't recommend it... then i asked them for ducted aircon, they give us a quote and again, not recommend it again... they actually said that it would be good for me to look around and decide what system work better to the house... she said that if i go with them i can only have 1 brand to choose and the price is not good... i think she is quite honest, so i have taken her advice... as i am building single store, i think it won't be too hard to do the installation after handover

House-To-Be · Jul 02, 2008 10:27 pm

Scribe

Is it true that for double storey houses the evap cooling outlets only need to be on the top floor with the air flowing down the stairs? How many points would we need - one per room or does it work differently?

Our builder quoted $6500 but recommend we install it ourselves later.
I had assumed it would be more difficult that way.

Hi Scribe, we are a building double story house and have 9 points throughout. Four downstairs - lounge, family, kitchen/meals and rumpus and five upstairs - all four bedrooms and the games room. This is how the display home is set up. We asked for a point to be put in the study which is at the front of the house next to the lounge room but the manufacturer said we didn't need it as the nine points would be enough. PD said if we desperately wanted the point in the study we would need to buy a second unit. A friend is building a double story home same sized as ours through the NBG and they will only do cooling vents to the top story per my friend. She was actually surprised that we were having them downstairs too!

I would have thought it would be easier to install cooling while the house is being built rather than later on

A friend had evap cooling installed last summer in her home which would have to be 25 years old, she didn't have any trouble getting it installed though.