Evaporative Cooling Cost in Australia [2026]: Install, Run & Compare

A ducted evaporative cooling system costs around $3,000–$7,500 installed for most Australian homes (AUD, prices include GST), and roughly $0.15–$0.35 an hour to run. Replacing an existing unit on the same ductwork costs less, typically $2,800–$5,500 depending on the brand. Your climate decides whether it’s the right choice: evaporative cooling works well in dry cities like Perth and Adelaide and poorly in humid ones like Brisbane.

Here’s what you’ll pay to install, replace, run and service an evaporative system, how much water it uses, and how it compares with refrigerated air conditioning in your climate.

How Much Does Evaporative Cooling Cost to Install?

A new ducted evaporative system for a typical home costs $3,000–$7,500 installed. That range holds across four independent sources: two installers that publish their pricing (Global Cool Air in Perth and Fused Air), ServiceTasker’s national cost guide, and real quotes from homeowners in Melbourne and Canberra.

One Perth installer breaks the price down by home size:

Home size	Outlets	Typical installed cost
Small (2–3 bedrooms, single-storey)	4–5	$3,500–$5,500
Medium (3–5 bedrooms, single-storey)	5–8	$5,500–$7,500
Large (4–6 bedrooms, multi-storey)	8–12	$7,500–$10,000+

Prices include GST (September 2026). The breakdown by size comes from Global Cool Air alone, so treat it as one installer’s view; the overall range is the part that several sources confirm.

Two real quotes sit right in the middle of that table. In Canberra, another dry city where evaporative cooling is common, a Bonaire system with 7 ceiling vents in a 175 m² four-bedroom home was quoted at $4,600. In Melbourne, a homeowner who went direct to specialist installers was quoted $4,000–$5,000 for a Braemar or Breezair system with a similar number of vents.

Replacing an Existing Evaporative Unit

If you already have an evaporative system and the ducts are in good shape, you only pay for the rooftop unit and the labour to swap it. That brings the price down to $2,800–$5,500, and the brand is the main thing that moves it:

Brand	Replacement, supplied and installed
Coolair	$2,800–$3,500
Celair	$2,800–$3,800
Braemar	$3,000–$4,500
Brivis	$3,000–$4,500
Bonaire	$3,200–$4,800
Breezair	$3,500–$5,500

Prices from Extrordinair, a Melbourne installer (August 2026), and they line up with other installers. ComfyHome, also in Melbourne, quotes a 15.1 kW Breezair from around $4,520 installed, using the existing dropper box, ductwork and power point. ServiceTasker puts a basic replacement on existing ducts as low as $1,800–$3,000.

Breezair, Braemar and Coolair are all made by Seeley International, so the step from Coolair to Breezair is largely a step up the same manufacturer’s range. Ask your installer whether your existing ducts and outlets suit the new unit before you compare brands.

What Changes the Price

Number of outlets and home size

Every outlet adds ducting, a ceiling vent and installation time. A small home with four or five outlets sits at the bottom of the range; a large home with ten or more outlets can pass $10,000. When you compare quotes, check that each installer has allowed for the same number of outlets in the same rooms.

Single-storey vs double-storey

A second storey makes the job harder at both ends. Ducting has to reach the upper floor, and the rooftop unit sits higher, so getting the old unit off the roof and the new one on takes more time and access equipment. If your home is double-storey, ask each installer how they’ll run ducts to the upper rooms and whether roof access adds to the quote.

New installation vs replacement

This is the biggest single difference in price. A replacement on existing ducts costs thousands less than a new system with new ductwork. If your ducts are old, damaged or undersized, ask for both options quoted separately so you can see what new ducting would add.

Builder vs specialist installer

If you’re building a new home, don’t accept the builder’s evaporative option without checking it. One Melbourne homeowner was quoted $7,200 by their builder for a Brivis system, then found quotes of $4,000–$5,000 for a Braemar or Breezair system with the same number of vents by going straight to a specialist installer. Get at least one independent quote before you sign off on the builder’s inclusions.

Brand

Entry-level units like Coolair start around $2,800 installed as a replacement; premium Breezair units reach $5,500. See the replacement table above for where each brand sits.

Running Costs: Electricity

Evaporative cooling uses a fan and a small water pump, with no compressor, which is why it costs so little to run. On milder days you can also run most units in fan-only mode, which moves air without wetting the pads.

Cost per hour

A ducted evaporative system typically costs $0.15–$0.35 an hour to run. Global Cool Air works it out from the unit’s power draw at around 30c/kWh: a 400 W unit costs about $0.14 an hour, a 700 W unit about $0.24, and a 1,000 W unit about $0.35. Extrordinair and ServiceTasker land in the same range.

To estimate your own cost, multiply the unit’s power draw in kW by the hours you run it and by your electricity rate. A 0.7 kW unit running 8 hours a day at 33c/kWh costs about $1.85 a day.

Cost per year

For a whole summer, the numbers depend heavily on your climate and how many hours you run the system. Sustainability Victoria publishes a neutral comparison for a 220 m² home in Melbourne’s climate:

System	Efficiency	Annual cooling cost
Ducted evaporative	Inverter	$25
Ducted evaporative	Standard	$42
Multi-split reverse cycle	3.5 stars	$124
Ducted reverse cycle, no zoning	3 stars	$172
Multi-split reverse cycle	2 stars	$177
Ducted reverse cycle, no zoning	1.5 stars	$258

Installers in Perth and Melbourne quote a much higher figure: $200–$300 a season. Both are right. Sustainability Victoria models Melbourne’s mild summers with fairly light use, while the installers assume a long, hot summer of daily running, often eight hours a day for around 90 days. Your cost sits somewhere between the two, depending mostly on how many hours you run it.

Evaporative vs split system running costs

A split system cools one room; a ducted evaporative system cools the whole house for less per hour. Finder’s analysis of 4,066 models on the government’s Energy Rating calculator puts the national average for a split system at about $0.62 an hour (electricity prices as of November 2025), against $0.15–$0.35 an hour for evaporative. Over a season the gap holds: in Sustainability Victoria’s table above, even a 3.5-star multi-split costs $124 a year to cool the home, against $25–$42 for evaporative. Where a split system wins is humid weather, heating, and homes where you only need one or two rooms cool.

Why the “10x cheaper” claim is misleading

You’ve probably seen evaporative cooling described as up to 10 times cheaper to run than reverse cycle. The figure comes from Seeley International, and its brochure explains what it compares: $37 a year for evaporative against a 1.5-star, unzoned reverse cycle system in the same 220 m² Melbourne home. That’s the least efficient reverse cycle setup in the table above.

Against a 3-star reverse cycle system, which is closer to what’s sold today, evaporative is about four times cheaper, not ten. Zoning closes the gap further, because every reverse cycle figure above cools the whole home at once. Electrical Connection, an electrical industry publication, goes further still: against a 6 or 7-star reverse cycle system, energy use becomes similar, although reverse cycle gives you more precise temperature control. The honest answer is a range of four to ten times cheaper, depending on what you compare it with.

How Much Water Does Evaporative Cooling Use?

Budget for water as well as electricity. The water evaporating off the cooling pads is what cools the air, so the more you run the system, the more water it uses.

Water Corporation, Western Australia’s state water utility, says an evaporative air conditioner can use up to 100 litres an hour in Perth’s hottest weather, and more than 30,000 litres a year if you run it six hours a day for 50 days. In normal conditions, Extrordinair puts use at 10–30 litres an hour.

Part of that water never evaporates. The system drains some water away (the “bleed-off”) to stop minerals building up on the pads. Water Corporation suggests checking it yourself: hold a bucket under the drain outlet for 30 minutes while the system runs. A rate of 11–20 litres an hour is reasonable, and modern units can run as low as 3 litres an hour. If yours drains more than that, ask for the bleed-off to be adjusted at the next service.

Water tariffs differ between utilities and states, so multiply the litres by the rate on your water bill to put a dollar figure on it. If you’re on tank water or under water restrictions, ask the installer for a usage estimate for the unit size you’re considering.

Evaporative Cooling Service Cost

An annual service costs $150–$350 (Global Cool Air quotes $200–$350 including GST; ServiceTasker $150–$250). A standard service covers cleaning the filters or pads, checking for leaks and adjusting the bleed-off. Pads wear out over time and need replacing, so ask whether the quote includes new pads or only cleaning.

Evaporative vs Refrigerated: Which Suits Your Climate?

Evaporative cooling pulls hot outside air through wet pads. As water evaporates into the air, it takes heat with it. That only works if the air has room to take on more moisture: in humid weather, the air arriving at the pads is already close to saturated, and the cooling effect drops away. Refrigerated (reverse cycle) air conditioning works on a closed loop instead, so humidity doesn’t stop it, and it heats as well as cools.

City	Climate	Evaporative cooling
Brisbane	Warm, humid summers	Humidity limits performance for most of summer; choose reverse cycle
Sydney	Warm temperate, coastal	Workable, but coastal humidity makes it less consistent than in Perth or Adelaide
Perth	Dry	Strong candidate and widely used
Adelaide	Dry	Strong candidate and widely used
Melbourne	Mild temperate	Workable for most of summer, weaker on humid days

Two more things to weigh besides climate. An evaporative system needs a window or door open while it runs, because it pushes fresh outside air through the house instead of recirculating it. And it only cools: if you want heating from the same system, reverse cycle is the only option.

Switching From Evaporative to Refrigerated

Switching costs more than most people expect, because evaporative ducting can’t be reused for refrigerated air conditioning. The job means removing the rooftop unit, patching the roof, and installing new insulated ductwork along with the new system, so budget for it as a full new installation.

The only published price comes from Beyond Heating & Cooling in Melbourne: from $6,300 for a 12.5 kW system with 6 outlets and from $7,300 for a 16–17 kW system with 10 outlets. Those prices are after Victoria’s VEU rebate, which only applies in Victoria, so expect to pay more elsewhere. Air & Water, a Perth installer, confirms the conversion costs more than a new installation but doesn’t publish a figure. For full prices without a rebate, see our ducted air conditioning cost guide.

Portable and Wall-Mounted Evaporative Coolers

If you only need to cool one room, a portable evaporative cooler costs $50–$800, from small desktop units to larger plug-in models. A wall or window-mounted unit costs around $400–$800 installed (ServiceTasker). They cool the room they sit in and nothing more, and the same climate rule applies: they work in dry heat and struggle in humid weather.

The Bottom Line

In a dry climate, ducted evaporative cooling costs $3,000–$7,500 to install and a few hundred dollars a summer to run, which makes it the cheapest way to cool a whole home. In a humid climate, or if you want heating as well, ducted reverse cycle is the better buy. If you only need to cool one or two rooms, a split system costs less than either. Live in Perth and weighing up both? Compare the numbers in our guide to ducted air conditioning cost in Perth. For more help choosing, see our heating and cooling guides.

Frequently asked questions