Quote:
Originally Posted by sperry
Try running a swampcooler when it's 20F outside... now you have a block of ice on the roof. Meanwhile real air conditioning is trucking right along keeping that server room at 68F/30%.
|
If the designers weren't retarded, they'd just be running the air handler fan and pulling in outside air for the cooling load if it's 20F outside.
But you're right, overall the typical swamp cooler has a fairly narrow useful operating range.
Quote:
|
Do you know anything about commercial HVAC? A large percentage of it is not what you would call Air Conditioning at your home because it is too damn expensive!!! There are chillers, cooling towers, a whole lot of water, heat exchangers, etc... In many ways a cross between the two technologies, and in the appropriate climates, many companies do use large 2 stage evaporative cooling systems. I'll bet you money IGT's Computer rooms are not cooled by freon condensers, compressors and such like your house!!!!
|
A residential swamp cooler is not really analogous with a campus-sized pumped water loop, cooling tower, chiller, etc. setup. Even water-cooled chillers use refrigerant; they're like A/C units that cool down a chilled water loop instead of air, and their waste heat goes into a warm water loop that dumps into the cooling towers. The chilled water is pumped through heat exchangers in the air handlers that then blow design temp/humidity air into the conditioned spaces.
Your house unit cools by simply putting the supply air in direct contact with some water, resulting in cooler, more humid supply air.