Air-cooled heat rejection systems (air-cooled condensers, chillers and dry coolers) relies on dry bulb temperature which is generally between 5°C (41°F) and 15°C (59°F) higher than the wet bulb temperatures. Traditionally, large heat rejection systems use cooling tower or evaporative coolers in order to reduce the heat rejection equipment size as well as the overall energy consumption due to lower condensing temperatures.
However, the water based corrosion, maintenance and health risks such as Legionella disease moved the industry towards less efficient dry heat rejection systems.
By simply intermittently spraying water over a wired mesh area in front of the heat rejection surface against the direction of the air stream introduces wet bulb temperature during only peak high ambient periods.
Adiabatic cooling process can be introduced using simple city main water into an air stream which rapidly evaporates and the hidden energy of water provides a cooler down stream air temperature as much as 10~25°C (20~30°F) lower than the incoming air. Lower air on temperature results in lower condensing temperature and therefore save as much as 30% peak power consumption by simple using water directly from the tap.
Any make or model of air-cooled chillers, small or large-scale air-cooled condenser units for both HFC and Ammonia refrigeration whether a new project or retrofit application can be easily converted to a wet system by means of either factory add-on or site modification.
The majority of the time the water presence remains with the sealed main water pipe and it is based on Total Waste principle. Hence, the health risk involved with a standing water reservoir as well as expensive chemical treatment requirement can be completely eliminated.
Test sites of this new concept indicated between 20~35% peak electricity reduction for Air Cooled Chillers and Condensers. This concept can be considering as a simple DIY kit for both New and Retrofit applications. Hence, the potential for the energy saving and Carbon Emission reduction for the industry as a whole is significant and this can be achieved by simple using the tap water.
Finally, some of the test sites have been in operation for the last 15 years without any operational, maintenance, health, and safety problems and therefore this concept can be consider as safe, reliable and economical solution towards easing some of our current environmental concerns for the refrigeration and air conditioning applications.
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