Swamp Coolers and the Arizona Monsoon Season

In the Arizona desert in the 1920s, people would often sleep outside on screened-in sleeping porches during the summer. On hot nights, bed sheets or blankets soaked in water would be hung inside of the screens. Whirling electric fans would pull the night air through the moist cloth to cool the room.

That concept, slightly more refined, became the evaporative coolers that to this day provide a low-cost, low-technology alternative to refrigerated air conditioning.

An evaporative cooler produces effective cooling by combining a natural process - water evaporation - with a simple, reliable air-moving system. Fresh outside air is pulled through moist pads where it is cooled by evaporation and circulated through a house or building by a large blower. As this happens, the temperature of the outside air can be lowered as much as 30 degrees.

Probably because evaporative coolers add moisture to the air and blow it around, they are sometimes knows as "swamp coolers." Evaporative coolers can work wonderfully well, provided the outside air they are drawing in is dry and desert-like. As the humidity increases, however, the ability for them to cool the air effectively decreases. Simply put, swamp coolers were not designed to work in swamp-like conditions.

The Arizona Monsoon seasons is just a few days away and the evaporative coolers don’t work (or at all) well as the humidity (or dew point) climbs.  Anytime after June 20th the dew point can climb above 50° and the evaporative coolers begin to blow warm (or hot) moist air.

The main drawback of swamp coolers is that they depend on dry outside air to operate effectively. This is usually not a problem for most of Arizona, which has a desert climate. On hot, muggy days during the summer monsoon season, however, swamp coolers will blow hot, humid, soggy air into the house. If the humidity stays high for several days, the moist pads that make the evaporative cooler work can begin to smell, and the musty odor can be blown into the house.

Now is the time to make sure your AC unit is ready to take the load of keeping your home cool and dry.  Give Aaron’s Mechanical Service a call at 623-388-4436 to see how we can help you be ready.

Presented by;
Aaron’s Mechanical Service
623-388-4436
info@coolingaz.com
http://coolingaz.com