Evaporative cooling / air conditioners / "Swamp coolers" ?

[flot]

So, I've been doing some reading about evaporative cooling systems... Here in FL everyone has their air conditioner running approximately 22 hours a day... but we don't have these "swamp coolers" that apparently are common in places like Arizona?

For those that don't know, basically it's an air conditioner, but it works by wetting a membrane with water, and then blowing air across the membrane. As the water evaporates, the air is cooled. This is obviously a much more "environmentally friendly" method of cooling off your house. However, there are a number of disadvantages, the biggest that in humid climates (IE Florida) you'd end up with a rainforest in your living room with 130% humitidy.

But what I'm trying to figure out is this (and I have seen some passive references to doing this online) ... why not combine the evaporative cooler with the standard outside A/C condensor? What would happen if I surrounded my A/C condensor unit with evaporative panels? Presumably it would become more efficient, yes? The air blowing past the coils would be cooler than the normal outside air, and thus the compressor could run less to cool.

I guess I'm confused as to why I've never seen anything like this. ?

 

[Keego]

That would be more efficient, unlike ads on the left side of the forum.

I'd think the swamp cooler would take more energy to keep the water cold + blowing air, vs. just air conditioning, but I have no idea. with the swamp cooler, you'd have to deal with getting a cool water source, right?

 

[Ronstang]

How do you plan to continually wet the membranes around your condenser? I doubt it would be efficient......and water costs money too. The gain would be marginal at best. Even evaporative systems require electricity to funciton. the fans in a normal AC system consume most of the power...not the compressor.

 

[flot]

It wouldn't be difficult at all to wet the membrane around the air conditioner.

In fact, what would be easier would simply to rig up a "misting" garden sprinkler next to the condensor outside. When the condensor kicked in, have it also trigger a valve that would supply city water to the mister. Voila, now a couple gallons of water a day is automatically lowering the intake air temperature to the condensor.

But surely someone (Everyone) would be doing this if it were worthwhile. I'm just curious about it, seems to me that it could provide a substantial benefit. ??

 

[Ronstang]

Like I said, using water mist on the condenser will have a marginal affect at best. I don not think it is worth the effort.

 

[Kalvin00]

We have a cooler like that. It works very well when the temp is 100+ outside; the temp in here never gets above 80.

It might work. Best thing to do would be to try it.

 

[FrustratedUser]

I don't know about your idea.

Just wan't to say that swamp coolers does not work when it is humid. In AZ they work just fine. If you are sensitive to dry air then they are really great.

<---- Normal AC user

 

[mattgyver]

Originally posted by: flot
It wouldn't be difficult at all to wet the membrane around the air conditioner.

In fact, what would be easier would simply to rig up a "misting" garden sprinkler next to the condensor outside. When the condensor kicked in, have it also trigger a valve that would supply city water to the mister. Voila, now a couple gallons of water a day is automatically lowering the intake air temperature to the condensor.

But surely someone (Everyone) would be doing this if it were worthwhile. I'm just curious about it, seems to me that it could provide a substantial benefit. ??

I have seen something like this actually in operation. A company I worked for in high school was too cheap to buy a new air conditioning system for their really old building--so they hooked up some misting sprinkler heads to spray directly onto the outside condensing unit. They didn't really have to bother with a relay-type device to turn it off and on, since it pretty much stayed on constantly. I don't know how effective that system was, but it was still hot as hell in there in the south Georgia summer. They eventually replaced the aging units and afterwards the temperature was bearable.

My uncle used to have this system rigged up that had water pipes with holes in them running acroos the top of his roof. When it got to a certain temperature, a relay would switch on putting water through the pipes, cascading water down his roof. I don't know how effective that system was, obviously not very, because he disconnected the system several years ago. It seemed that the only real effect the water had was to stain his roof with hard-water deposits.