If your air conditioning unit is on the fritz or you're in the process of building a more energy-efficient home, consider installing a whole-house evaporative cooler as an alt... read full tip

If your air conditioning unit is on the fritz or you're in the process of building a more energy-efficient home, consider installing a whole-house evaporative cooler as an alternative to central air conditioning.

Evaporative coolers draw hot air from the outside and push it through wet padding using a fan or blower. As water evaporates from the padding, it removes the heat from the air, and lowers the temperature of the air vented through the unit by up to 30 degrees compared with the outside air. Because evaporation occurs much more readily in dry regions than in humid ones, evaporative coolers work especially well in desert-like climates.

By using an evaporative cooler instead of central air conditioning, you could cut your cooling bills by up to 75 percent. For the average household, the savings could be more than $200 per year.

If 10 percent of all households in the arid southwest states of Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico replaced their air conditioners with evaporative coolers, more than $80 million could be saved each summer-enough to pay winter heating bills for more than 200,000 homes.

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