Evaporative Cooling Scientific Facts

We hope that you're enjoying your visit to our Breezair web site. You may have wondered why
you haven't heard about evaporative cooling before, or whether or not evaporative cooling is a
gimmick. Simply put, evaporative cooling is not new technology and is well grounded in
scientific fact. A scientific explanation of evaporative cooling and why Breezair coolers are
better follows.
To understand evaporative air-cooling, it is important to know the relationship between dry air
and water vapor, as well as some technical terms.
1. Dry bulb temperature (db) is the degree (not amount) of heat measured with a regular
thermometer.
2. Wet bulb temperature (wb) is the degree of heat measured with a "wet sock" attached to
the bulb. The Wb is also the temperature at which water evaporates when air is blown over the
wet surface.
3. Relative humidity (rh) is the ratio of the amount of water (as vapor) actually contained in
the air to the maximum amount of water vapor that could be contained at the same temperature
(saturation). For example, at 50% rh, the air contains 50% of the maximum (100%) amount of
moisture (water vapour) that it could contain at the same temperature.
4. Adiabatic cooling is the direct evaporative cooling process, whereby the dry bulb
temperature is lowered without altering the amount of heat in the air.
5. Latent Heat is the heat absorbed by the moisture as it changes from liquid to vapor during
evaporation. This heat is absorbed by the vapor without any increase in its temperature - an
important physical phenomenon.
6. Media or Filter Pad or Evaporation Pad is the screen through which air must pass to
come in contact with the water.

Basic considerations of airflow are volume and velocity. Volume is the amount of air (expressed
in cubic feet per minute (CFM)), and velocity is the speed of air (expressed in feet per second
(FPS)).
The volume of air through the media affects the cooling capacity of the Air Cooler along with the
evaporation rate of the water. The volume of air also affects the ability of the Air Cooler to
reduce the temperature of a room.

The velocity of the air through the media is an important criterion for determining efficiency.
Velocity is also important in preventing water carry-over and blow-off.
Warm air can hold more moisture than cold air, and therefore when air is heated without
changing the moisture content, the relative humidity drops. Conversely, when air is cooled, the
relative humidity rises.

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Evaporative Cooling Scientific Facts

In an Evaporative Air Cooler the latent heat that is absorbed by the water as it changes from
liquid to vapor is taken from both the air passing through the media and the water left in the
media - so both the air and water are cooled and their temperature falls. The water does not
concern us, but the cooled air is what we want.

The above illustrates that when water passes over the media and air is blown through it, water
evaporates and the air is cooled so that the dry bulb temperature of the cooled air approaches
the original air wet bulb temperature.

Note that the total amount of heat has not changed, but its nature has changed. The small
amount of latent heat in the original water vapor in the air has become larger because of an
increase in the amount of water vapor, due to evaporation.

CALCULATING SUPPLY AIR TEMPERATURE

Evaporative cooling effectiveness is the expected reduction of air temperature based on the
efficiency of the media and the air movement system. "Wet bulb depression" (wbd) is the
difference between dry bulb temperature and wet bulb temperature for the entering (ambient)
air.
For example,
95F db and 77F wb equals a 18F wet bulb depression.
To determine the expected discharge dry bulb air temperature, :
Discharge temperature db = entering db - [efficiency x wbd]

Note:
1. Db = 95F, Wb = 77F = Relative Humidity of 44%
2. The Efficiency must be provided by the manufacturer of the Air Cooler. When brand new,
it may be as high as 85% for Aspen fiber pads but reduces as the media deteriorates. A

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Evaporative Cooling Scientific Facts

well-cleaned and maintained media will be about 80% efficient if the machine is well designed.
Many machines operate at lower efficiencies

TEMPERATURE DROP CHART

Ambient Relative Humidity (RH) versus Ambient Temperature (F)
F \ RH
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130

10%
36.2
42.9
49.2
55.3
61.4
67.2
72.9
78.7
84.5

20%
37.9
45.1
52.1
58.9
65.7
72.5
79.1
86.0
92.8

30%
39.6
47.2
54.7
62.2
69.6
77.1
84.5
92.2
99.9

40%
41.2
49.3
57.3
65.2
73.3
81.3
89.3
97.5
-

The figures in the table for the corresponding ambient relative humidity and ambient
temperature represent the approximate supply air temperature based on a minimum pad
saturation efficiency of 90%. The difference between a Breezair cooler and many other types of
evaporative cooler is our ability to maintain a high saturation level and even airflow across the
filter pad media, thus maintaining a high evaporation rate and maximizing the cooling effect.
We're putting the science of evaporative cooling to work for you.

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