Some information On Evaporative Cooling:
An evaporative cooler produces effective cooling by combining a natural process - water evaporation - with a simple, reliable air-moving system. Fresh outside air is pulled through moist pads where it is cooled by evaporation and circulated through a house or building by a large blower. As this happens, the temperature of the outside air can be lowered as much as 30 degrees.
Probably because evaporative coolers add moisture to the air and blow it around, they are sometimes known as "swamp
coolers." Evaporative coolers can work wonderfully well, provided the outside
air they are drawing in is dry and desert-like. As the humidity increases,
however, the ability for them to cool the air effectively decreases. Simply put,
swamp coolers were not designed to work in swamp-like conditions.
The process of evaporation happens all the time. Our bodies, for example,
perspire in hot weather; through evaporation the sweat dries and drops our body
temperature.
Whenever dry air passes over water, some of the
water will be absorbed by the air. That's why evaporative cooling naturally
occurs near waterfalls, at rivers, lakes and oceans. The hotter and drier the
air, the more water that can be absorbed. This happens because the temperature
and the vapor pressure of the water and the air attempt to equalize. Liquid
water molecules become gas in the dry air, a process that uses energy to change
the physical state. Heat moves from the higher temperature of the air to the
lower temperature of the water. As a result, the air is cooler. Eventually the
air becomes saturated, unable to hold more water, and evaporation ceases.
Evaporative Cooling Chart - Typical Results With Evaporative Cooling, based on
outside temperature and relative humidity. Note: The higher the
relative humidity the less temperature drop from the evaporative cooler:
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