Homeowners finding relief with evaporative coolers

No longer willing to settle for uncomfortably hot homes, Garfield County residents are choosing high-efficiency evaporative coolers over air conditioning as an economical and environmentally friendly way to keep cool in the summer.

When Rifle resident Richard Eberle accepted new work hours a year ago, his bedtime routine changed, and he had to go to sleep at 7 p.m. But the old conventional swamp cooler in his 1,800-square-foot tri-level home wasnt cooling the house sufficiently that soon in the evening.

I had trouble sleeping because it was so hot in our master bedroom. We needed to do something, and last summer was so hot, Eberle said.

In August 2013, he decided it was time to make a change to his home cooling system. With guidance from CLEER Energy Coach Maisa Metcalf, Eberle replaced a 10-year-old conventional swamp cooler for a new high-efficiency evaporative cooler. The change was immediate.

Our house has never been hot like that again. The new unit helps cool the entire house right. If it gets too hot, you adjust it with the thermostat, he explained.

Evaporative coolers have become a popular way for people in Colorado to cool their homes. Residents from Parachute to Glenwood Springs, in particular, are catching on to this trend.

At least a dozen homeowners have worked with CLEER and Garfield Clean Energy to get free energy coaching and apply for rebates to make an upgrade or install evaporative cooling for the first time. GCE has distributed more than $4,300 in rebates toward residential evaporative cooling systems since June 2013.

A $500 rebate from Garfield Clean Energy and $1,000 from Xcel Energy was a big incentive for Eberle and his wife to get a new evaporative cooler. It cut the cost more than half, he said.

Eberle hired Mountain Air Mechanical of Rifle for the job, which included installation of new ducts to the bedrooms and an extra vent in an upstairs hallway.

They did an excellent job of installing it for me. I was very happy with the quality of work that they did, Eberle said. Its quality equipment, too, which I appreciate.

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Homeowners finding relief with evaporative coolers