Although swamp coolers and air conditioners were invented to turn hot air into cool, the science behind each method is quite different.

What is a swamp cooler?
It’s just another name for an evaporative cooler. Water is used to wet absorptive pads around the sides of the cooler. A fan or “squirrel cage” draws outside air through the pads and the air is cooled as the water in the pads evaporates. The major benefit of this type of cooler is that you only need to power a water pump and a fan to draw the air through the pads.

They typically use between three and 10 gallons of water per day. That’s equivalent to a few toilet flushes or, on the high end, a short shower.

Unless the relative humidity is lower than 30% or so, swamp coolers are not very effective. They work well in the southwest, west Texas, and parts of Idaho, Washington, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. In those areas you should be able to achieve a 20 degree differential between outside and inside.

Also, for a swamp cooler to remain effective it must exhaust as much air as it takes in. This means keeping a window open. If you don’t, the humidity will rise and so will the temperature of the air blown from the cooler.

Air conditioning, on the other hand, is popular because it will reliably dehumidify and cool the air, no matter where you live. This how an air conditioner works:

The compressor compresses cool Freon gas, causing it to become hot, high-pressure Freon gas. This hot gas runs through a set of coils so it can dissipate its heat, and it condenses into a liquid.
The Freon liquid runs through an expansion valve, and in the process it evaporates to become cold, low-pressure Freon gas. This cold gas runs through a set of coils that allow the gas to absorb heat and cool down the air inside.

Mixed in with the Freon is a small amount of lightweight oil that lubricates the compressor.

Swamp cooler vs air conditioner: which is cheaper to operate?

In our friendly contest the swamp cooler wins handily. For similar sized units, even an air conditioner with and Energy Star rating uses 4-5 times the power needed to run a swamp cooler.

The difference is the amount of energy required to power an air conditioner compressor versus the electric motors used in a swamp cooler.

Which is better for the outdoor environment?

Unless you believe that soon to be outlawed R-22 refrigerant leaking into the atmosphere from your air conditioner is a good thing, the swamp cooler wins again. The swamp cooler maintains a Green profile by mimicking nature’s way of cooling.

The way in which an air conditioner or swamp cooler affects the indoor environment of your home is determined by the way it circulates the air. Although an air conditioner re-circulates the same air, this is helpful in controlling allergens such as dust and pollen.

Since an open window is necessary when running a swamp cooler, you’ll be letting in what the air conditioner keeps out.

Swamp cooler vs air conditioner: Which one wins?

I think swamp coolers are a good option since they’re relatively less expensive and much cheaper to operate than air conditioning as long as you live in Phoenix, Arizona. But if you call Little Rock, Arkansas your home, nobody’s going to talk you out of your air conditioner.

In recent years portable air conditioners have become much more popular than only a few years ago. They are often used in homes that already have central air conditioning systems installed to assist in cooling problem areas.

Portable air conditioners are self contained and do not take up a lot of space. These units are about 28 to 32 inches tall. They can be somewhat heavy but this issue is easily overcome by getting a unit that has wheels installed for easy mobility. Most models come with wheels that can be installed very easily.

One of the greatest things about portable air conditioners is that there is no installation cost associated with them and maintenance is quite simple. Put it in any area of your home as long as there is a wall outlet nearby. You can even wheel it from the living room to your bedroom or kitchen, or wherever you need it. Park it against a wall or in a corner out of the way. This is a big advantage over window air conditioners because once a window unit is mounted in your window it is not a easily moved.

Portable air conditioners and window air conditioners also, are relatively quiet compared to older models of window air conditioners and will not become a nuisance when trying to watch TV or sleep. A popular name for window air conditioners is “window bangers” because of how noisy they used to be.

Portable air conditioners are slightly more expensive than window air conditioners of the same capacity but not a lot more expensive and the advantages of owning a portable air conditioner over a window air conditioner far outweigh and small price increase.

When selecting a portable air conditioner it is very important to select a unit with the proper cooling capacity for your requirements. Oversized units will not perform at maximum efficiency and will probable not give you as many years of use due to erratic operation. Purchasing a unit that is oversized for the job will not work easier. This is just the way that they work.

Look for air conditioners that are Energy Star Compliant. These units will have an energy star label which indicates that they consume less energy than similar standard products. Energy Star guidelines are set by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.

Prices for portable air conditioners start at less than 300 dollars and increase from there. This is probably about twice the cost of a window air conditioner of equal capacity but they are much better systems. Window air conditioners are now as low as 150 dollars and maybe less if you get it on sale. But if you can afford it the portable air conditioner is move versatile.

So don’t be enticed into thinking that you have to have central cooling if it’s not in your budget right now. A portable air conditioner will give you many years of trouble free operation at only be a fraction of the cost of a central system.

To make your home more energy efficient, you need to understand the energy efficiency of different types of heating and cooling systems. Many times people are confused by inaccurate information they receive from manufacturers and sellers of heating and cooling equipment. But all you need to know in order to make wise decisions when purchasing this equipment are a few simple facts.

First of all, the proper sizing of equipment is of utmost importance for comfort and low utility bills. Once the proper size is known, then you must decide what type of system best suits your needs. Let’s look at three ways houses are heated.

Natural gas furnace,
Air-to-air electric heat pump,
Geothermal heat pump (electricity).

Now, let’s consider how efficient they are. And when I talk about heating efficiency, I’m talking about how efficiently the system converts either natural gas or electricity to heat for you home.

A typical gas furnace will be rated at about 80 percent efficiency when it is new and if it is installed properly. That percentage will lessen with each year’s use. An 80-percent efficiency rating means that 80 percent of the gas used will provide heat and the other 20 percent goes up the flue. For example, look at your neighbor’s gas flue on a cold winter morning and see the steam coming out.

While I don’t recommend this, a gas furnace that is 90-percent efficient can be used. With this unit, about 10 percent of the fuel goes up the flue. At first glance, you might think 80 to 90 percent sounds pretty good. But consider this. Would you purchase gasoline for your car and pump 10 to 20 percent of it on the ground? In my opinion, our nation would not have to worry about shortages of natural gas if we simply didn’t waste it.

Another popular type of heating system, an air-to-air heat pump, uses electricity instead of gas. All Doug Rye homes use electric heating systems. An air-to-air heat pump, properly installed, would operate at an efficiency of around 250 percent. I know what you are thinking. “How can anything be more than 100 percent energy efficient?”

Remember, we are talking about how efficiently a unit uses either electricity or gas to move or create heat. Unlike a gas-fired furnace, a heat pump does not actually create heat, it simply moves heat from one location to another. Air-to-air pumps extract the heat from the air. With a heat pump, you use one unit of electricity and get about 2.5 units of heat.

My favorite system, the geothermal heat pump, is simply the very best there is. Most geothermal heating systems operate at close to 400 percent energy efficiency! Wow!

That’s five times the efficiency of the 80 percent gas furnace. As this heat pump is extracting heat from Mother Earth, which is a constant 57 degrees, it is operating on minimal stress and using a very small amount of electricity to move the heat from the earth into the house.

With a geothermal system, you buy one unit of electricity (one unit of heat) and Mother Earth will give you three more units of heat for free. (That three units of heat is solar energy that Mr. Sunshine gave us over millions of years.) In future columns, we’ll talk more about how air-to-air and geothermal heat pumps work.