How to maintain your swamp cooler, when to replace it, and what to replace it with, part 18 – heat pump

This post is the sixteenth in a multi part series on swamp cooler repair, maintenance, and replacement options, like refrigerated air conditioning. If you haven’t read parts 1 – 15, I recommend you do before continuing. Drawbacks of refrigerated air conditioning Uses more electricity – Swamp coolers use the power of evaporation to do their cooling work, which means they’re far more energy efficient than refrigerated air systems. However, modern refrigerated air technology has come a long way in efficiency, […]

This post is the fifteenth in a multi part series on swamp cooler repair, maintenance, and replacement options, like refrigerated air conditioning. If you haven’t read parts 1 – 14, I recommend you do before continuing. Advantages of refrigerated air conditioning (continued) Air filtration – Refrigerated air conditioning systems use HEPA filters to clean the air they blow into your home. A direct evaporative cooler, on the other hand, draws air directly from outside. This air can bring in smoke […]

This post is the fourteenth in a multi part series on swamp cooler repair, maintenance, and replacement options, like refrigerated air conditioning. If you haven’t read parts 1 – 13, I recommend you do before continuing. Elements of the refrigeration cycle (continued) Expansion Valve Refrigerant enters the expansion valve as a high pressure liquid. The expansions valve restricts and limits the flow of the refrigerant, dropping its pressure as it enters the “low side” of the loop. Evaporator The refrigerant […]

This post is the thirteenth in a multi part series on swamp cooler repair, maintenance, and replacement options, like refrigerated air conditioning. If you haven’t read parts 1 – 12, I recommend you do before continuing. Elements of the refrigeration cycle (continued) Compressor The refrigeration cycle works on a basic law of physics: when liquids change state into gaseous from, they absorb heat, and when gases change state into a liquid, they give off heat. This sounds great, but how […]

This post is the twelfth in a multi part series on swamp cooler repair, maintenance, and replacement. If you haven’t read parts 1 – 11, I recommend you do before continuing. Option 2: replace your old swamp cooler with a refrigerated air conditioning system It used to be the case that refrigerated air systems were simply too expensive to operate to be worth it for New Mexico homeowners. Fortunately, advancements in refrigerated air conditioning technology mean that modern units are […]

This post is the eleventh in a multi part series on swamp cooler repair, maintenance, and replacement. If you haven’t read parts 1 – 10, I recommend you do before continuing. Two stage evaporative coolers – “hybrid” systems Two stage evaporative coolers utilize the technologies found in both direct and indirect systems. This is why they are sometimes called “hybrid” swamp coolers. Two stage swamp coolers represent the apex of swamp cooler technology and design. The first stage of a […]

This post is the tenth in a multi part series on swamp cooler repair, maintenance, and replacement. If you haven’t read parts 1 – 9, I recommend you do before continuing. Direct (open circuit) swamp coolers (continued) Direct evaporative coolers are the simplest and, generally speaking, cheapest type of swamp cooler. However, they do have one large disadvantage – the high humidity of their output stream. Humidity values in the 80% range are fine when it’s very dry out, but […]

This post is the ninth in a multi part series on swamp cooler repair, maintenance, and replacement. If you haven’t read parts 1 – 8, I recommend you do before continuing. Fortunately, the modern consumer has far more choice when it comes to air conditioning than folks did back in the 70s and 80s. There are direct, indirect, and two stage evaporative systems, refrigerated air systems, heat pumps, and more. But with so much choice, how can the consumer pick […]