Tamworth drought: evaporative cooler investigation on the cards to find out how much water it guzzles
EVAPORATIVE coolers are a staple of numerous homes and now Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) wants to know exactly how much water they guzzle.
Water rebates have seen hundreds of residents switch to more sustainable options and at Tuesday night's meeting the issue of evaporative air conditioners and their impact on dam levels cropped up.
TRC water and waste director Bruce Logan told councillors staff have evaporative coolers in their sights.
"We are looking at an investigation to see how much water evaporative air conditioners use in Tamworth because it is an issue for us," he said.
"They use a lot of water, we have the idea of an expression of interest to see if anyone would be prepared to put measuring devices on individual meters to start gathering some information about how much water they use relative to size and use.
"We'll come back to the council with a cost to see if the council wants to pursue that in the fullness of time."
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There's no indication at this stage when the council will commission a study into water use by evaporative coolers but it's understood a report will be submitted to the council before a decision to move forward is made.
This financial year, 335 rebates have been approved at a one-off cost of $47,688 under the Water Saving Rebate Scheme.
The water savings so far are estimated to be 4002 kilolitres of water each year.
The council has spent $12,629 to fund evaporative air conditioner servicing and maintenance for residents.
The water saving rebates are part of the council's Drought Management Plan which residents will soon be surveyed about.
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