When you are living in a hot climate area, the temptation to get cool air in your room is quite natural. Regulating the room temperature in a hot and dry, or hot and humid zone is quite a necessity, and to meet the requirements you would get two standard choices before you, both of which would not make you break your bank account. The regular air conditioner, and the evaporative cooling system, both serves as great solutions for getting cold air and feel comfortable.

However, there are significant differences in working principle, making the air conditioner a costly investment, and incurring substantial usage bills throughout. Comparatively the evaporative cooling system is a pretty natural technique of cooling the air that too without the aid of any chemicals. It is also a budget friendly option. Hence before buying one, you should weigh their functionality, utility, and expenses, and then make the decision.

Difference in principle of working

The AC works by extracting heat from the air in a room, and it does this by running the hot air through a duct full of refrigerant padded around. This refrigerant, which is a chemical, is swiftly liquefied and vaporized again and again through the process. The working of the machine is confined to a closed space, which is the room. And the room size tells what sized AC will be required for it. The room has to be specially made air tight when the AC is on; else the machine will not be able to cool efficiently. The machine only circulates the same air inside the room; sucks it in, cools, and then releases repetitively.

The evaporative air conditioner has other names like evaporative cooling system and swamp cooler. The working of this machine is totally on the principles of evaporation. Water evaporates from a surface while absorbing the heat from the surface, thus turning the surface cooler on losing that heat. The same principle is applied to hot air too. Hot air enters the machine and comes in contact with water; the water takes the heat from the hot air to evaporate thus bringing down the air temperature. This cooled off air is then blown out from the front of the machine.

Advantages of the evaporative cooling systems

The evaporative cooling device is portable, and you don’t need a confined space to run the unit. Without any artificial means, and air tightened rooms, the machine works in natural, effective and evaporative principle. The air drawn inside is fresh air, which is cooled and blown out, and the machine constantly circulates fresh air. Evaporative cooling systems do not spike up the power bills and are also much budget-friendly compared to conventional AC units.

The machines come as single units, and in different sizes with varying cooling capacities. Also, these come in the ducted system for the whole house, with one centrally operating unit. Overall you can get a nice cooling effect without facing artificially cooled air, and without having to stay in a closed room. You may place the unit on your balcony, at poolside, patio or deck, or may transfer it from room to room.

Evaporative cooling systems are especially preferred in hot and dry regions, where the water molecules come out with the blown out cool air, and will not increase the humidity, and will rather feel good on the hot and dry skin. That is why it’s also called a desert air cooler.

When you are about to buy an evaporative cooler

Before buying one, you should find out the size of the room, where you will mostly run the unit. This will guide you in selecting the size of the machine as per the cooling capacity.