People sometimes worry about the water consumption of an evaporative cooler. I found this information in an NREL report:
"on a Btu-of-cooling-per-kWh-of-electricity basis, the best evaporative cooling systems are on the order of five times more efficient than SEER 13 central air conditioning (CAC) systems and demand is less by a factor of four or more. Further, additional water use at the site (home) amounts to only about 3 percent of the water use of an average residential customer."
So don't let water costs drive you away from swamp coolers in Denver.
However, if you are building a new, smallish, superinsulated low energy home, you are better off going with a mini-PTHP for heating and cooling. A swamp cooler requires more maintenance and seasonal mode changeover, which is awkward due to seasonal overlaps like "Indian Summer".
"on a Btu-of-cooling-per-kWh-of-electricity basis, the best evaporative cooling systems are on the order of five times more efficient than SEER 13 central air conditioning (CAC) systems and demand is less by a factor of four or more. Further, additional water use at the site (home) amounts to only about 3 percent of the water use of an average residential customer."
So don't let water costs drive you away from swamp coolers in Denver.
However, if you are building a new, smallish, superinsulated low energy home, you are better off going with a mini-PTHP for heating and cooling. A swamp cooler requires more maintenance and seasonal mode changeover, which is awkward due to seasonal overlaps like "Indian Summer".
