Surviving the summer scorchers – what are the best appliances for where you live?

December 6th, 2012

Appliance Talk Heating & Cooling

How is your household handling summer thus far?  Reckon you’ll be able to stay cool when things get hot and dry, or avoid sweating through the sweltering tropical times?

The best appliances to keep you cool and comfortable this summer could greatly depend on exactly where you’re living and what kind of weather you’re likely to experience.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology is predicting that this summer:

• A wetter than normal season is more likely for parts of Western Australia, southeast Queensland and eastern New South Wales
• A drier than normal season is more likely for the northern half of Queensland
• Warmer days are more likely over southwestern, southeastern and northern Australia
• Cooler days are more likely over southeastern Queensland and northeastern NSW

(source: BOM Seasonal Outlooks)

Australian Summer temperature outlook

So at the top end of Queensland, around Darwin, and throughout Victoria, it looks like things are going to stay fairly hot and dry, so a high-performance air conditioner or at least a decent fan should prove a useful investment.

However, if you’re living in south east Queensland or northeastern NSW, it looks like you’ll be dealing with more rainy days than hot days, so a dehumidifier could be more useful to you to keep your house drier, if not cooler.

In Western Australia, high rainfall and hot days may require an air conditioner with a dehumidifier function, or two separate appliances if that’s not an option, to stay comfortable no matter what.

Australian Summer rainfall outlook

Air conditioners

Choosing the best air conditioner greatly depends on your home and your living situation.  A portable air conditioner is ideal for renters and anyone living in a smaller home where only one room at a time needs to be cooled.  A window air conditioner is a simple way of a keeping a single room perfectly temperature controlled, so you’ll always be able to sleep or relax in comfort.  Larger split-system air conditioners tend to be a bit pricier than the other options, but it’s hard to match them when it comes to performance.

Whatever type of air conditioner you choose, try to pick one with a moisture removal/dehumidifier mode if you live in a tropical area.  To prevent your investment gathering dust through the winter, see if you can choose a reverse-cycle model that can heat as well as cool your home.

Just always remember to keep your air conditioner clean so that it will run efficiently all through summer and beyond, especially if it has a reverse-cycle heating function – you won’t want the leftover summer germs making you sick while cooped up inside for the winter.  Allergy filters and the like are especially useful here.

Fans

The other day at Appliances Online HQ, we were having a long chat about fans, comparing traditional desk fans to the range of bladeless Dyson Air Multipliers. While we appreciated how the Dyson models are easier to clean than traditional fans, and remove the risk of accidentally chopping a finger off, we did lament that without blades to “chop” the air, you can’t shout into a Dyson fan and create the “robot voice”.

One model of special note is the Dyson Hot + Cool fan, which can blow warm air as well as cool, not unlike a reverse-cycle air conditioner, but in bladeless fan form!  And since there is no place for dust to collect on hot elements, no nasty heater smell is given off.

Dehumidifier

Living in the tropics?  Seeing a lot of rainfall around your hometown being predicted on the BOM map above?  Prefer to breathe the air in your home, rather than drink it?

Then a dehumidifier may be for you!

Not only will a dehumidifier keep your home nice and dry, so you wont have to sweat in the stinking humidity, but by extracting the moisture from the air, your home is less likely to become the site of a mould or mildew outbreak.

Take note though that your dehumidifier will not help to cool your home during hot weather – like other electronics, it actually emits a certain amount of waste heat when running, which may contribute to overheating an already stuffy home.  But at least you won’t be feeling all sticky.

Air purifier

Finally, even though the Spring pollen season is mostly passed, an air purifier can prove handy for keeping your home’s air breathable and free from germs and allergens.

If even a dehumidifier can’t completely beat the mould and mildew that builds up during tropical months, an air purifier should be able to help extract their spores and other nasty bacterial particles from your home’s air, preventing them from affecting your health.  Plus, if you’re in a dry and dusty area, an air purifier can help you to avoid coughing up grit all the time.