A/03 · Evaporative cooling · Melbourne
Whole-of-home cooling, fresh from outside.
Premium evaporative cooling supplied and installed across Melbourne — from the Mornington Peninsula through bayside to the north-east. Whole-of-home, fresh-air cooling, properly specified for the homes that suit it.
Braemar · Breezair · Brivis · Coolair5-year warrantyArchitect-led installs
Project — Mornington, 2025
Whole-of-home ducted evaporative install across the bedrooms, living, and kitchen wings. Roof-mounted Braemar with motorised zoning, recessed ceiling outlets, water-saving controller.
Evaporative cooling, in short
Fresh outdoor air, evaporatively cooled, ducted to every room.
- →Roof-mounted unit · properly flashed and weatherproofed
- →Insulated ducts · ceiling outlets in every room
- →Wall controller · zoned, app-enabled, water-saving
What is evaporative cooling?
Fresh outdoor air, cooled and delivered through every room.
Evaporative cooling draws warm outside air through water-saturated cooling pads, where evaporation drops its temperature by 10–15°C, then distributes the cool, filtered air through your home via ducts and ceiling vents. The unit itself sits on the roof; the air it delivers is fresh, never recirculated.
This is fundamentally different from refrigerated cooling, which closes the home and conditions the air inside. Evaporative replaces the air in your home constantly — every room is cooled by fresh outdoor air drawn in, used once, and pushed out through open doors and windows.
For Melbourne’s typical hot, dry summer days, evaporative cooling is genuinely efficient — often a fraction of the running cost of refrigerated. For humid days, it works less well. Whether it’s the right system depends on your home, your climate, and how you live.
If you’re weighing options, see our ducted refrigerated air conditioning and split system air conditioning pages.
When evaporative cooling is the right choice
Evaporative isn’t a compromise — for the right home, it’s the better answer.
Evaporative cooling shines in Melbourne homes with cross-ventilation, garden access, and the climate to suit it. For those homes, it’s often the smarter spec. Here’s when we recommend it.
01
Peninsula coastal homes
Mount Eliza, Mornington, Mount Martha, Portsea, Sorrento, Flinders — where the dry sea breeze is exactly what evaporative cooling thrives on. Coastal Melbourne climate genuinely suits this system.
02
High cooling demand homes
Larger homes where the running cost of refrigerated ducted on 35°C+ days adds up. Evaporative is a fraction of the cost on the hot days you’ll actually use it.
03
Open-plan with garden access
Homes where doors and windows naturally open for outdoor living. Evaporative needs cross-ventilation and gets it effortlessly in well-designed homes.
04
Passive-design architectural builds
Homes already designed with thermal mass and ventilation paths. Evaporative complements the design philosophy rather than fighting it.
05
Fresh-air priority
Where occupants explicitly want continuous air exchange rather than sealed, recirculated cooling. Cooking, pets, asthma-aware homes — ventilation is the feature.
06
Energy-conscious owners
Lower running costs and a smaller carbon footprint across the cooling season. A fraction of the wattage of equivalent refrigerated capacity.
Evaporative is not the right answer for every home. Apartments, sealed homes without ventilation paths, and homes in humid micro-climates are better served by refrigerated. We’ll tell you honestly at the consultation — the wrong system in the wrong home is no one’s idea of a good outcome.
Ducted whole-of-home
Modern ducted evap is zoned, controlled and considered.
For premium homes, evaporative cooling is almost always ducted whole-of-home — a single roof-mounted unit feeding insulated ducts and ceiling outlets across every room. Modern ducted systems also offer zoning, which addresses one of the older criticisms of evap.
Overnight
Cool only the bedrooms
Run the system on bedroom outlets through the night instead of cooling the whole house. Lower water, lower power, just where you sleep.
Daytime
Direct airflow to living
Push fresh-air cooling into the living wing during the day, with the bedrooms zoned off until evening.
Acoustic
Quiet the unused rooms
Reduce airflow noise in parts of the home you’re not in — the system runs softer where it matters.
Efficient
Cut water and power
Running part-load instead of full-load on every outlet means lower water consumption and lower running cost across the cooling season.
Single-outlet or non-zoned systems still make sense for smaller homes, holiday houses, or where simplicity is the priority. We’ll specify what suits the home.
Inverter fans, fresh air & modern efficiency
Modern evap is quieter, fresher, and better-finished than you remember.
Two upgrades have changed evaporative cooling materially in the last decade. Inverter-driven fan motors mean variable-speed operation: quieter at low load, lower power consumption, finer control over indoor temperature. The fan ramps to match conditions rather than running flat-out.
The other upgrade is hardware finish. UV-resistant chassis, longer-life cooling pads, water-saving controllers, and Wi-Fi app control are now standard on premium ranges — the same finish quality you’d expect from a premium refrigerated install. And the original benefit remains: every cycle replaces indoor air with filtered outdoor air. Refrigerated systems can’t match it.
01
Inverter fans
Variable-speed motors match load — quieter at low speed, lower power, finer control.
02
Fresh air
Every cycle replaces indoor air with outdoor air. Cooking, pets, ventilated interiors.
03
Modern finish
UV chassis, longer-life pads, water-saving controllers, Wi-Fi app control.
Brands we install
Premium evaporative cooling from manufacturers we trust.
Smart Climate installs premium evaporative cooling systems from manufacturers we trust to perform long-term and stay supported. Seeley International manufactures both Braemar and Breezair locally in Australia, with strong service support across Melbourne.
JP · LPHE & LPM
Braemar
Including the LPHE and LPM premium ranges — the standard for high-end Melbourne installations.
JP · Icon & Supercool
Breezair
Strong reputation for fan technology and pad design — Icon and Supercool ranges.
JP · Contour & Promina
Brivis
Well-matched to architectural builds where unit profile and roof aesthetics matter.
JP · Specific applications
Coolair
For applications where their capacity, controller, or installer support suits the brief.
We don’t push a single brand on every job. The right unit depends on home size, roof profile, the zoning approach, and acoustic priorities — that’s a specification call.
How we install evaporative cooling
Premium installation isn’t about the unit alone — it’s the work around it.
Premium installation isn’t about the unit alone — it’s about the duct design, the roof penetration, the outlet selection and the work that goes around it. Here’s how a Smart Climate install actually runs.
i.
Site visit & specification
We measure the home, look at how each space is used, assess roof access and structure, and propose a system sized correctly. Undersizing leaves you sweating on hot days; oversizing wastes water and energy.
ii.
Duct design
Insulated ducts run through the roof cavity along the shortest practical paths. Sharp bends and undersized branches cost performance; we design around them.
iii.
Outlet selection
Standard ceiling outlets, slimline grilles or designer-matched options — selected to suit the architecture, not chosen by default.
iv.
Roof installation
The unit is mounted on a properly flashed base with full weatherproofing. Roof penetrations are sealed to last decades. Drainage and overflow are routed away from valley gutters.
v.
Outdoor unit placement
Considered for airflow, drainage, neighbour acoustics, and how it reads from gardens and outdoor living areas.
vi.
Clean handover
Site cleaned. Controller and app paired. You’re walked through how to run the system properly — including the zoning logic — not handed a manual.
Compare options
Weighing alternatives? Start here.
A/02
Ducted refrigerated air conditioning
Whole-of-home cooling and heating through concealed ducts. The premium standard when sealed, dehumidified, all-weather performance matters.
Explore service →
A/04
Ducted gas heating
Gas-fired ducted heating where established gas connections favour it — can share the same ducts and outlets as evaporative where suitable.
Explore service →
T/01
Find your system
A short guided tool that asks about your home and how you live in it, then suggests the right system — split, ducted refrigerated, or ducted gas. Two minutes, no commitment.
Open the tool →→
Evaporative cooling installation · Melbourne
From the Peninsula to the north-east.
We install evaporative cooling across premium Melbourne suburbs. If you’re not sure whether we cover your area, give us a call — we usually do.
Mornington Peninsula
Mt Eliza · Mornington · Mt Martha · Portsea · Sorrento · Flinders
Bayside
Brighton · Hampton · Sandringham · Beaumaris
Inner East
Toorak · South Yarra · Armadale · Hawthorn · Kew · Malvern
North-East
Balwyn · Canterbury · Doncaster · Templestowe · Eaglemont
Evaporative cooling FAQs
Questions we hear, answered honestly.
If your question isn’t here, call us on 1800 577 522 — we’d rather have a five-minute conversation than send you a brochure.
How does evaporative cooling compare to ducted refrigerated?
Evaporative is fresher-air, lower-running-cost on hot dry days, and doesn’t recirculate. Refrigerated is more precise, works in any weather, dehumidifies, and seals the home. Both are correct answers for different homes. The consultation is where we work out which one fits yours.
Will evaporative cooling work on humid days?
Less effectively. When humidity is high, the air can’t absorb much more moisture, so the cooling effect drops. Melbourne has relatively low summer humidity overall, but it does get muggy patches — typically a handful of days per year. For most homes, this is an acceptable trade-off; for some, it’s not.
Do I need to leave windows and doors open?
Yes — evaporative cooling needs an air outlet for the system to work. In practice, this means leaving doors and windows on the opposite side of the home slightly open, which most homes accommodate naturally. It also means continuous fresh air through the home, which many owners prefer.
How loud is a modern evaporative cooler?
Quieter than older units, especially with inverter-driven fan motors. At medium speed, a premium ducted system is unobtrusive. At maximum speed on a 38°C day, you’ll hear it working — that’s true of any cooling system.
How much water does it use?
A typical home uses 20–40 litres per hour of operation, depending on the unit and conditions. Over a Melbourne summer, this is a real but modest cost. Modern water-saving controllers reduce consumption further.
Can evaporative coolers also heat?
No. Evaporative cooling is cooling only. For heating, we’d specify a separate system — typically ducted gas heating, which can share the same ducts and outlets where suitable.
Will evaporative work in my home?
That depends on the home’s ventilation paths, roof access, and your local climate. Coastal Mornington Peninsula homes are typically a strong fit; sealed inner-city apartments typically aren’t. The consultation answers this honestly.
How long does installation take?
A typical ducted evaporative install runs one to three days depending on home size, roof complexity and zoning. We’ll give you an honest timeline at quote.
What’s the warranty?
Five years on most premium evaporative units, with extended manufacturer coverage available. Our installation work is covered separately.
Project — Mount Martha, 2025
Whole-of-home ducted evaporative install across primary living and bedrooms. Roof-mounted Braemar LPHE, zoned controls, recessed ceiling outlets matched to the architecture.
Talk to Smart Climate
If you know what you want, we’ll quote it. If you’re working it out, we’ll help you get there.
Whichever way you’d rather start — describe the system you want and we’ll quote it, or let us help you specify the right system for your home. Including telling you honestly if evaporative isn’t the right answer.
Or pick up the phone:☎ 1800 577 522