Are Water Evaporative Coolers as good as their claims?
[gard]
Three trains of thought from three different individuals, two of them ‘experts’ in air flow, refrigeration and air conditioning and one, a professional installer of a known brand.
Evaporative Cooler – source wiki: Nevit
What they say about water evaporative coolers:
- Won’t work in our environment, too close to the sea and too many computers – mechanical engineers, air flow expert doing chain stores.
- Just done two factories with the water chiller, near the sea and working perfectly – electrician, air-con expert.
- It should not be a problem but be careful of the humidity. We normally install in area ‘x’ and ‘y’ known for their hot, dry environment – professional installer.
Here’s the take though. The company needing the air conditioner installation has a power supply limit of 150A. The maximum current draw currently sits at about 120A ~ 130a at full load. The area needing to be air conditioned is double volume and a minimum of 100 000 BTU is required. We will have a power crises in hot weather if using conventional a/c. The water evaporative cooler is about our only solution.
My own experience with water evaporative coolers is pretty much none existent except for the wares sold at the mass retail stores. They work well but already in an air cooled environment.
- I do know that they are very poor performers in humidity.
- They are also known as swamp coolers in the USA.
- They draw much less current than the air conditioner we would have liked to use – approximately 80% less.
- Believe that the maintenance is straight forward and costs less to repair.
- The unit we will have installed would be coupled on to the existing ducting.
- The premises is situated about 1km away from the sea. The climate is known to be hot and dry in summer.
Our current climatic conditions indicate humidity of 54% and temperatures of 32 degrees C / 90 degrees F.
What I don’t know is just how effective they are?
Will this type of cooler work for us or be a total or a total waste of money?
Any professional installers of air conditioning equipment be able to shed some light on evaporative coolers? The web is full of information about how it all works but what is lacking is hard core information regarding the installation, BTU performance and of course – has anyone done an installation near the sea?
Please give us your comments. Links and business details are welcome.
[gard]
The water evaporation technique is old study, tried and proven and contrary to many claims can be highly effective. Most of the installation work I was involved in was commercial (possibly like yours?) but always in very, hot dry areas – the desert environment was a great testing ground. I have until recently been installing air-conditioners for the last 30 years and if the installation is to be done by professional installers ensure that the water is clean, filtered and all joints are done to a high standard – water leaks are not uncommon and can cost you an arm and a leg, without you being the wiser. Always service these units after a long run and ensure that there is no sign of corrosion. Do get a humidity and temperature gauge, it makes sense not to generate more humidity especially if sea or rather salt is a problem. For all practical purposes I believe a hybrid using refrigerant through a heat exchanger may have been more effective though. Another time, another place. Just my dimes worth.
The water evaporation technique is old study, tried and proven and contrary to many claims can be highly effective. Most of the installation work I was involved in was commercial (possibly like yours?) but always in very, hot dry areas – the desert environment was a great testing ground. I have until recently been installing air-conditioners for the last 30 years and if the installation is to be done by professional installers ensure that the water is clean, filtered and all joints are done to a high standard – water leaks are not uncommon and can cost you an arm and a leg, without you being the wiser. Always service these units after a long run and ensure that there is no sign of corrosion. Do get a humidity and temperature gauge, it makes sense not to generate more humidity especially if sea or rather salt is a problem. For all practical purposes I believe a hybrid using refrigerant through a heat exchanger may have been more effective though. Another time, another place. Just my dimes worth.