Recent fires in southwest Western Australia has raised cocerns for owners of evaporative air conditioners after the previous summers devastating fires.
The Keelty inquiry into the devastating Kelmscott-Roleystone fires earlier in 2011 found evaporative conditioners a mitigating factor in almost half of the 70 homes lost.
In times of extreme heat the obvious thing for a home owner to do is to turn on their air conditioner. Evaporative air conditioners sited on rooftops suck in the surrounding air and pass the moisture-laden air through evaporative pads. In times of bushfires, however, the air is rich with hot ash and floating embers which can easily ignite the dry cellulose filter pads when sucked into the system.
Properly installed systems should have protective grilles around the air intakes and system owners are encouraged to check and see if they are installed correctly in readiness for the bushfire season.
Many schools in the Mundaring Shire, where the bushfires struck last summer, are being conditioned by evaporative air conditioning due to its cheap installation and suitable capabilities in low humidity areas. The shire president, Helen Dullard, however, says schools have been asking the Education Department to fit the protective grilles for some time.
Ms Dullard says the shire has had no response since writing to the department last September and is now taking the issue up with the minister.
“The schools have been asking for those air conditioners to be changed or have appropriate grilles put on them and have got no response so we picked that up, because we recognise those children at our schools are seriously at risk,” she is quoted as saying on ABC News.
All installers of evaporative air conditioners should install protective grilles in bushfire zoned council areas and also advise clients to turn the system off in times of high fire danger as part of their fire prevention plan.