Should I Keep My Evaporative Cooler When Converting to Electric?

It is a genuine choice

Most Macedon Ranges homes converting from gas heating to ducted reverse cycle have an evaporative cooler on the roof as well. The new system will cool the house, so the evaporative cooler is no longer needed for that. Whether it stays or goes depends on the roof, the design and what you want.

When it can stay

Where roof space and the system design allow, an existing evaporative cooler can remain operational alongside the new ducted reverse cycle system. Some households like having it for the dry days: fresh moving air at a low running cost, with refrigerated cooling for the humid days and heating in winter. It is a design question we look at during the site assessment, because both systems need space and ductwork in the roof.

When removal is the better option

If the evaporative cooler is old, no longer worth maintaining, or in the way of the new ductwork, removing it is usually the cleaner result. We can remove the unit and, where suitable spare or matching roof tiles are available, reinstate the roof appropriately. Whether removal is possible and what the roof outcome looks like is confirmed at the site inspection, not promised beforehand.

The ductwork is separate either way

A new ducted reverse cycle system gets its own new, correctly insulated ductwork. The evaporative cooler’s ducts are not reused for it, and neither are the old gas-heating ducts. Keeping the cooler means keeping its ductwork as well; removing it means those ducts and outlets are dealt with as part of the job.

What to tell us

Whether you would like to keep the cooler if you can, and whether it still works properly. From there the assessment settles it, as part of the gas to electric conversion design.