Swamp Cooler vs Refrigerated Air Running Cost Calculator

This answers the question every Albuquerque homeowner asks before a conversion: what am I actually spending now, and what would I spend instead. It uses published PNM tariff rates and published equipment nameplate data rather than a rule of thumb, and it does not ask for an email.

The assumptions, in the open

What a cooler draws. Phoenix Manufacturing’s specification sheet for the residential AeroCool Pro-Series lists the 4,800 CFM models with a three quarter horsepower two-speed motor at 120 volts drawing 11.9 amps on high and 6.4 amps on low, and the 6,800 CFM models with a one horsepower motor at 14.1 and 7.4 amps. At 120 volts that is roughly 770 to 1,430 watts for the mid-size unit, plus about 50 watts for the submersible pump. The calculator uses 0.8 kW at the low end and 1.5 kW at the high end for a mid-size cooler, which is why the base range is as wide as it is: speed selection is the single biggest variable in your bill.

What the power costs. PNM’s 27th Revised Rate No. 1A, residential service, is a block rate. The first 450 kWh a month is 8.97 cents per kWh year round. In the summer billing months of June, July, and August the next 450 kWh is 14.87 cents and everything above 900 kWh is 19.95 cents; in the non-summer months those upper blocks are 12.83 and 17.01 cents. There is an $11.93 monthly customer charge regardless of usage. On top of the energy charge, all usage is subject to the Fuel and Purchased Power Cost Adjustment under PNM Rider 23, and the bill is subject to gross receipts tax.

Because a typical household already passes 450 kWh before the cooler is switched on, cooling energy is priced at the upper blocks. That is why this calculator uses 14.87 to 19.95 cents per kWh rather than the headline first-block rate. If you use very little electricity otherwise, your cooling costs less than this says.

What refrigerated air draws. University of Arizona researchers writing in Southwest Hydrology measured about 850 kWh a month for refrigerated air against about 250 for an evaporative cooler on a 2,000 square foot house, a ratio of roughly 3.4 to 1, and that is the multiplier the calculator uses. It is worth knowing what would push that lower: federal rules at 10 CFR 430.32 require split-system air conditioners under 45,000 Btu per hour installed in the Southwest, which includes New Mexico, on or after January 1, 2023 to meet 14.3 SEER2 and 11.7 EER2. A brand new system at that standard is meaningfully better than the equipment in that measurement, so a modern conversion will not cost you 3.4 times as much to run. It will still cost more.

What the calculator does not tell you

Running cost is one of four numbers in the conversion decision, and it is often not the deciding one.

The conversion page works through the whole decision, and the house feels muggy page has the actual Albuquerque dew point data behind that third row. If you are staying with the cooler, the repair cost calculator prices the maintenance side, and the pricing page has every published range in one table.