How Low-cost Air Coolers Deliver New Experience in Comfort and Convenience

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While air coolers are widely used in other climes, they haven’t been seriously introduced to the Nigerian market before now. Not many Nigerians know what air coolers are or how air coolers work, and much fewer have experienced them in use.

Yet, air coolers are well-suited to our environment and current circumstances. Why?

Air coolers offer some advantages that make them very valuable to a Nigerian user. Check:

Low Power Consumption

Air coolers use considerably less power than regular air conditioners. Averagely, they use some three quarters less power, than ACs. While a small air conditioner will be of, say, 1 horsepower rating, which is about 746 watts, a small air cooler like the Videocon VC1202 is only 130 watts - about the capacity of two light bulbs of 60 watts each. That means, not just much lower power consumption, but the suitability for use with small generators and low capacity power inverters.

Low Cost

Air coolers are also good for the pocket – they cost much less than air conditioners. The Videocon VC1202, mentioned above, is priced in the range of N16,000 – N17,000. Even larger units that can be used for halls and large spaces will still cost less than N30,000. That makes air coolers an attractive alternative to air conditioners.

Mobility & Convenience

Air coolers are convenient to use as they are not installed in the wall. Most air coolers have trolley wheels for mobility, meaning you can conveniently change the location in your room or indeed from one room to another, as you find fit.

Air Humidification

Dry weather? Not to worry when that comes. Air coolers help eliminate dryness, keeping you comfortable in very dry weather. They act act humidifiers.

Air Purification

Living in a polluted environment (think Lagos)? With air coolers, you're one step ahead. How's that? Because air coolers work by drawing the air in the room through the cooling wetted pads or mesh. That, too, provides an air filtering effect, taking off the particles and pollutants that may cummulatively hurt you.

What are Air Coolers, Anyway?

Air coolers are a room-cooling device, shaped quite like air conditioners, though working on a different cooling principle. They are also called evaporative air coolers because they work by an evaporation process which results in a significant cooling of your room.

How Air Coolers Work

To achieve the cooling effect, air in the room is pulled through wetted pads within the air cooler. Air coolers have a water chamber. They are also constructed to have some water-absorbent pad structure within. That could be of mesh pad or in other cases wood wool or what is called honey comb. These are structures that absorb and retain water and through which air in the room is sucked for cooling. As air, sucked into the air cooler by its fan, is pulled through the moist pads, it is cooled by the evaporation process. The air cooler’s blower now circulates the cooled air in the room.

How Much Cooling?

Put differently, you might want to ask if air coolers work. They do, and are used widely in other places. Experiment with a search, online, for “air coolers”, to see how much information you will find. They are used in the USA, India and other places where people are cost-conscious.

But there is a point to be made. Air coolers are not air conditioners and will not produce the chill you can get from an effective air conditioner. But also, they are not like ordinary fans that merely blow the air in the room around, without really attempting to reduce the air temperature. Air coolers have a cooling effect and will leave the room much cooler than you get from a fan. You get the picture?

In statistical terms, that cooling is put averagely in the region of up to 30 degrees reduction in temperature.

There is another point here, though. Air coolers are most effective in hot weather (which we have) and when it's dry. That is an ideal environment for effective evaporative effect, which achieves the most cooling.

A Test-ride?

The good thing about air coolers is that you can get a test ride without emptying your pocket. With far below N20k, you can install a unit at home or in your office and get a first-hand experience with an air cooler. That way, you can feel the impact and make your judgment whether to go for bigger and more powerful units.