Refrigerated air cause power strains in the Borderland

El Paso has just recorded it’s third longest 100 degree streak on record.

The record heat may have resulted in a new system peak energy consumption record for El Paso Electric, “We’re still verifying last week, but we may have broken that record as well”, says El Paso Electric Spokesperson Eddie Gutierrez.

This possible new record energy consumption for El Paso comes just a few weeks after we set a new record in June, “Our city continues to grow at just under two percent, so that has an impact”, says Gutierrez.

But it’s not just the Borderlands steady growth and summer heat that is causing energy consumption to spike. More and more people in the Borderland are switching from swamp coolers to refrigerated air, “As far as refrigerated units, that’s all we install now, it’s rare we do an evaporative cooler”, said Oscar Castro with Scott Heating and Cooling.

The dominance of refrigerated air comes despite the units using three times the electricity on average.

“The units they’re making now are a lot more efficient than the units they were making ten, twenty years ago”, says Castro. According to the U.S. Department of energy refrigerated air units use 20 to 40 percent less energy than just 10 years ago.

But it’s not only the increase in efficiency that has people making the switch to refrigerated air. The dew point – or amount of moisture in the air – has increased by nearly 4 degrees since 1970, according to Climate Central.

The increased moisture in the air makes swamp coolers less efficient and your house more uncomfortable.