Claude wrote:
"Jonno" wrote in message
...

Evaporative does not create water.

Yes, that aspect has got me puzzled too. I have always been under the
impression that evaporative coolers transfer water molecules into the air
being ducted into the building. So they presumably evaporate a fair amount
of reticulated water but why would there be any unused water going into the
storm water system? Why especially would there be the sort of quantities
going to waste that Linda is talking about? I suppose the answer is that
some systems run the water through a system of pads and anything not
evaporated is piped away rather than reused again - if so, would be
interesting to know if all brands and models are guilty.

The proper installation of evaporative coolers in residential areas
(all brands) requires that the water be periodically dumped to avoid
the build of Legionella etc. FYI, where they're installed into
commercial/industrial areas, the water usually isn't dumped but instead
is periodically treated with a biocide and inspected for contamination
levels. This isn't done in residential areas because the cost to the
owner of regular, manditory inspections is not practical.

In our current state of water availability, if you are going to get an
EC system installed, the sensible thing to do is to drain the unit into
a tank rather than letting the water flush down the drain. Of course,
no regulations exist for encouraging the efficient usage of the waste
water (probably because of the resulting backlash from the EC industry
coupled with the environmental backlash against advocating a less
energy efficient alternative). Then again, what would you expect when
our governments are trying to enforce water restrictions aimed at
reducing water wastage in 5% of the total water resource burden by
about 20%, while doing little to stop the remaining 95% of our water
supply to being needlessly flushed down the drain. So long as it looks
like we're trying to fix the problem what does it matter whether we
actually are or not? ;-)