ac vs swamp coolers

el paso electric was warning residents about the possibility of scheduled black outs due to the extreme heat and excessive power usage. thankfully the scheduled blackouts were not implemented. abc-7’s stephen decatur has more on last week’s energy usage, and why el paso electric got close enough to capacity to issue that warning. eddie: every summer we have higher temperatures but this summer is really, really hot. stephen: : we have just wrapped up the 3rd longest 100 degree streak on record in el paso. and when it gets hot energy consumption spikes. eddie: we’re still verifying last week, but we may have broken that record as well. stephen: we already broke the system peak energy consumption record for el paso last month, but we may have done it again last week. eddie: our city continues to grow, at about two percent, so that has an impact. stephen: another factor driving electricity usage: the large number of people converting from swamp coolers to refrigerated air. oscar: as far as refrigerated units, that’s all we install now, it’s rare we do an evaporative cooler. stephen: and as many already know, refrigerated air uses a lot more electricity. eddie: the conversion to swamp cooler to refrigerated air, we see an electrical uses that’s three time the normal use. stephen: so why are so many el pasoans making the switch even though the electrical cost is substantially higher? oscar: the units they’re making now are a lot more efficient than the units they were making 10, 20 years ago. stephen: refrigerated air units use 20 to 40 percent less energy than just 10 years ago, making it much more affordable. but it’s not just the increased efficiency which has people switching. oscar: but, i think the humidity has increased a little over the years. stephen: he’s right. the dew point – a measure of moisture in the air – has increased by nearly 4 degrees since 1970, and that makes swamp coolers less effective than in the past. stephen decatur – abc – 7. el paso electric expects to have the final numbers for last weeks power usage by the end of the week, and says now that temperatures have lowered the threat of outages has greatly deminished but they always encourage you to conserve when you can. we hit 102 today – 27th day of triples and 16 days in a row. an upper high over oklahoma/arkansas through thursday will then begin drifting back toward new mexico by