Air Conditioners Vs Evaporative Coolers - what's better

[rag top]

I'm currently looking at a cooling system for the home, and I was wondering what you use to keep your home cool.

I'm trying to decide wether just to run a reverse cycle a/c unit in the living areas, or as I'm already getting ducted heating put in, get either ducted a/c or evaporative cooling fitted the same time as the heating.

Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated!

[Perana]

Evaporative is USELESS in humid conditions.. When its dry however it can be cheaper to run... Personally I would always go for a refrigerative unit.

[svo347]

Evaporative is what we have here, I find it great and the volume of air pumped into the house is just heavenly.
But personally Id go for Ducted airconditioning as when its REALLY humid the evap doesnt work as well and in some instances makes it warmer inside that it is outside.

[rodderz]

Yes if it's a humid and hot day, an evaporative system will make the inside of your WHOLE house dripping wet, the walls, tiles everything, so up north it might not work very well

95% of the time down here in melbourne though, or places with similar weather it's fine

[lisa76]

We have a Panasonic Inverter split system in our house and it got it's biggest test on New Years Day - was 45C here - and it worked a dream.. We only had it set to 22C and the house was just lovely and cool. It never skipped a beat in the extreme heat, I'd recommend it in a heartbeat.

[MAD]

I reckon the best bet is to get an evap unit, which will work for 95% of the time in melbourne, but also have a small split system in the main living area for the real humid days.

[parawolf]

Originally Posted by rodderz

Yes if it's a humid and hot day, an evaporative system will make the inside of your WHOLE house dripping wet, the walls, tiles everything, so up north it might not work very well

95% of the time down here in melbourne though, or places with similar weather it's fine

Dunno about you, but my evap unit doesn't do this. It also says that you need to open windows and doors to get a air cycling affect. So if you don't open any windows, I can certainly understand how this happens.

But i'm with MADXF, get the evap unit for everyday because when that cool change comes, the evap unit sucks the cool air in immediately and you feel it throughout the house, but also get a two head unit split system (one in master bedroom one in living area) air con unit. We have the evap, but will get the split system shortly too.

[EFFalcon]

we've got evap in our place, does a good job.
we just open all the windows etc and theres not problems with stuff getting wet.
the 42 odd degree day we had the other day our house was sitting on 25 with the fan speed at about 3/4

[4.9 EF Futura]

Rev cycle air con has treated me very well over the years. Also an effective (albeit exepnsive) form of heating.

[rodderz]

Originally Posted by parawolf

Dunno about you, but my evap unit doesn't do this. It also says that you need to open windows and doors to get a air cycling affect. So if you don't open any windows, I can certainly understand how this happens.

But i'm with MADXF, get the evap unit for everyday because when that cool change comes, the evap unit sucks the cool air in immediately and you feel it throughout the house, but also get a two head unit split system (one in master bedroom one in living area) air con unit. We have the evap, but will get the split system shortly too.

Only on very humid days, most Vic heat is dry heat not humid

The few days that my other house did it was on a very humid day and windows open, the humidity goes against how the evap system works. Wouldnt happen often enough down here to go against getting it though

Originally Posted by '67

I'm currently looking at a cooling system for the home, and I was wondering what you use to keep your home cool.

I'm trying to decide wether just to run a reverse cycle a/c unit in the living areas, or as I'm already getting ducted heating put in, get either ducted a/c or evaporative cooling fitted the same time as the heating.

Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated!

Go evap in canberra it very cheap to run and you dont have all the house shut up , i was there over christmas and a freind and my mother in law both have it and it kept the whole house cool

Alan

In Qld we have to have R/Cycle Evap is no good here

[red_october]

Air conditioner gets my vote

[Paxton]

I have fully ducted in my house, and I can't live without it. I had it on on New Years Day (45 degrees Here), and it had the house below 25 degrees. It is a Daikin, 5 year old system, that won't die. It isn't overly expensive for heating either.

[Mrs347stroker]

My hubby installs air-cons for a living and he would never recommend evaporative cooling. Go with cooling air-con, you can't go wrong.

[pauljh74]

I suppose just make sure the unit is big enough for your needs. If it isn't, then you'll feel like you wasted your money. Go for the next size up than recommended - or a couple of smaller units to cool each end of the house

[Yummy Mummy]

I have evap (in Melbourne) and it's great. You don't have to have the house closed up and the breeze through your house is just beautiful.
Only had one day I can remember where the humidity effected it and had to use towels to mop up the tiles on the floor cos they were saturated.

Its cheap to run so you can leave it on on hot nights, or you can just have the fan going without the pump so there is just a nice breeze.

[tickford2001]

ive had both here in melb, both work fine here

i would go the evap cooler though, cheaper to run, the breeze is great, and you can still have the door open for the cat :hihi:

ACT should be fine with evap as well id reckon

Originally Posted by parawolf

Dunno about you, but my evap unit doesn't do this. It also says that you need to open windows and doors to get a air cycling affect. So if you don't open any windows, I can certainly understand how this happens.

But i'm with MADXF, get the evap unit for everyday because when that cool change comes, the evap unit sucks the cool air in immediately and you feel it throughout the house, but also get a two head unit split system (one in master bedroom one in living area) air con unit. We have the evap, but will get the split system shortly too.

Swamp boxes (evap coolers)will not be effective unless you do have the house open and are achieving air changes! I cannot see the point in a system that will not provide effective relief on the high humidity days, that's the whole purpose of a cooling system.

A couple of barely adequate splits will use similar energy to a well sized and designed whole home ducted system.

As for the poster with "we had it set on 22°C" it would have worked the same if it was set on 10° or 27°C, it's a thermostat and I am certain very few in the population have a grasp of the concept of the thermostat.

Be mindful that a design day in most of Australia is 35° ambiant, your refrigerated system will still operate above these conditions but will be very unlikely to achieve general thermostat setpoint temperatures, but at 45° ambient 29° or better in the room is comparitively cool.

[Hoops]

Originally Posted by '67

I'm currently looking at a cooling system for the home, and I was wondering what you use to keep your home cool.

I'm trying to decide wether just to run a reverse cycle a/c unit in the living areas, or as I'm already getting ducted heating put in, get either ducted a/c or evaporative cooling fitted the same time as the heating.

Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated!

Talk to Shorty, I'm sure that he will help you and get it cheaper for you, i think he will recommend evaporative due to it being cost effective and suiting Canberra's climate

[Bucknaked]

Originally Posted by Hoops

Talk to Shorty, I'm sure that he will help you and get it cheaper for you, i think he will recommend evaporative due to it being cost effective and suiting Canberra's climate

Shorty is a good one to speak too. But since his brother moved oversea's, he no longer does domestic jobs.

I would recommend evaporative cooling for Canberra. I had it installed prior to summer and in the past few days it's been going all day from early morning till late at night. Evap cooling takes the edge off the air and sends a nice freshing breeeze through the house. Air Con is good, but you pay through the nose. I was told that Evap cooling costs less than $1 an hour to run, where Air Con is 3 or 4 times more expensive. Be prepared to pay for it. Also it works perfectly well in Canberra. The nice thing is that you leave windows and doors open, so your not locked up in your house try to keep all the cool air in. So if you have kids running in an out all day, your not concerned about them leaving the door open.

Canberra doesn't get the crappy tropical weather like QLD. You'll find evap cooling is just right for the canberra conditions

[Hoops]

Originally Posted by Bucknaked

Shorty is a good one to speak too. But since his brother moved oversea's, he no longer does domestic jobs.

True however he will be able to tell you who to go to and im sure he would get it cheaper too, its worth a try

[svo347]

Originally Posted by Zebra

As for the poster with "we had it set on 22°C" it would have worked the same if it was set on 10° or 27°C, it's a thermostat and I am certain very few in the population have a grasp of the concept of the thermostat.

Thats really nice mate afterall isnt a Zebra just an *** with stripes :P

[Bucknaked]

Originally Posted by Hoops

True however he will be able to tell you who to go to and im sure he would get it cheaper too, its worth a try

He mentioned a guy who used to be a member. I think he joined the first meeting I attended. Cannot remember his name, but he had an AU XR8 ute and AU XR8 sedan. Anyway, Shorty said he is definatley the person to have a chat with.

[EBII Fairmont]

My dad just installed a split system, fujitsu 3hp. It is really good, as we have a large open area it does the job well. My dad hunted for anout 2 months and did his research properly. He saved roughly $1500. He bought one on special and then a friend of ours tolled bout this guy who is lisenced to install them. Did a top job. His become our handyman ever since, as he knows very welll what he is doing when it comes odd jobs round the house e.g. installing the rangehood properly.

While all the advice is valid...you really need to only take on board the advice of those who are actually in the same climatic area, otherwise the advice isn't really relevant.

[Deadman]

Originally Posted by Stampy

In Qld we have to have R/Cycle Evap is no good here

Agreed. Air Con is the only way to go.

[Falcon Coupe]

Evap for Melbourne and air con for Qld, i'm not sure about inbetween but.

[347Stroker]

Originally Posted by 4.9 EF Futura

Rev cycle air con has treated me very well over the years. Also an effective (albeit exepnsive) form of heating.

Are you using heroin?????

Reverse Cycle air conditioning IS the CHEAPEST form of heating bar ripping up the neighbours fence and burning it in an old 44 in the yard...and thats a fact!!!

Originally Posted by 347stroker

Are you using heroin?????

Reverse Cycle air conditioning IS the CHEAPEST form of heating bar ripping up the neighbours fence and burning it in an old 44 in the yard...and thats a fact!!!

I a lot of cases he'd be right 347, even though R/Cycle is by far the most efficient form of heating. The number of badly specced undersize splits going in just become a $$ pit.

poeple see no differentiation from a properly sized ducted in a well insulated home, and the brand name or korean splits hocked off from the local buy now pay later harvey whatsit discount emporium.