CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Air conditioning is the simultaneous control of air temperature, humidity, cleanliness,

and distribution within enclosed spaces. This study principally concerns cooling but
necessarily includes processes that affect the other factors. .
Specifically, evaporative air conditioning is the cooling of air by the evaporation of
water. When water evaporates into the air to be cooled, simultaneously humidifying it,
it is called direct evaporative cooling, the oldest and most common form. When the air
to be cooled is kept separate from the evaporation process, and therefore is not humidi-
fied as it is cooled, that is called indirect evaporative cooling. It was discovered about
60 years ago and is still relatively unknown. Neither process is widely understood
today.
Most other methods for cooling arose during man's literate and scientific recent
past, and they have been analyzed, recorded, and taught somewhat adequately. Evap-
orative cooling, however, had its birth in prescientific eras, when natural processes
were seldom studied. It flourished chiefly in hot, lightly populated desert areas, where
isolation prevented analysis and exposition; it was almost inoperable in the more pop-
ulated and temperate seacoast areas that led in scientific investigation and publication.
So, the antiquity of its beginnings, its seeming simplicity, and the nature of the loca-
tions where it has traditionally been used seem to have discouraged scientific inquiry
into evaporative cooling.
Consequently, this industry has far outstripped its related technical literature. In
1958, when at least 1,250,000 coolers were sold, the 1272-page Guide of the then Amer-
ican Society of Heating and Air Conditioning Engineers (now the American Society of
Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers, or ASHRAE) devoted half a
page to them, without tabl~s or data. Only in 1961, following three years of a million-
plus cooler sales, did the GUide add a full chapter. .
And, except for pamphlets and loose-leaf sales manuals, the 1963 edition of this
book was the first in the field. After that edition, cheap and effective mechanical air
conditioning overwhelmed evaporative cooling, and little further was published,
though there was some technical progress in the field.
In the 1970s, when power a~d interest rates rose and inflation first began to hand-
icap refrigerative systems, ~vaporative cooling resumed its climb. Sales have mounted
yearly ever since, and this book reflects the growing worldwide interest.
Henceforth, evaporative cooling will probably continue to compete well with
refrigerated air conditioning. First, tremendous markets for cooling and ventilating
industrial buildings have resulted from rising wage levels and from the noted adverse
relationship between hot temperatures and human productivity. An old and apt rule of
thumb is that human productivity falls 2 percent for each degree of temperature over
70F (3.6%/degree over 21.1C), and 3 percent for each degree over 90F (4.8 %/degree
over 32.2C).

J. R. Watt, Evaporative Air Conditioning Handbook

© Chapman and Hall 1986
2 / EVAPORATIVE AIR CONDITIONING HANDBOOK

In 1956 the United States had an estimated 600 million sq ft (55.7 million m 2) of
space in uncooled offices, and 12 billion sq ft (1.11 billion m2) in factories, mills, and
workshops, etc. Much of that has since been cooled, but industrial growth may have
trebled the total uncooled area. There are many plants that cannot afford mechanical
cooling but need massive cheap ventilation.
Furthermore, rising costs and the fact that staged indirect cooling can now deliver
nearly the same comfort as refrigeration almost everywhere away from seacoasts sug-
gest that much of the industrial market will eventually fall to the more economical
system. And much office and white-collar cooling tonnage may well convert to evapo-
rative if rising costs persist, as most indices suggest they will.
Unfortunately, there has been a great lack of available data in the area of evapora-
tive cooling, and many errors and inefficiencies persist in manufacture, sale, and instal-
lation. Because only facts replace rule of thumb, hearsay, half-truth, and misinforma-
tion, the purpose of this book is to supply as much objective knowledge as possible
about evaporative cooling.

Omissions
This study omits two subjects because standard texts everywhere cover them ade-
quately: cooling load calculation and duct design. Conventional computations for
those subjects serve all evaporative cooling except as follows:
1. No cooling loads occur from infiltering outside warm air where fans create posi-
tive indoor air pressure, as is the case with almost all coolers containing, or immedi-
ately followed by, fans or blowers.
2. Infiltration cooling loads occur principally where large exhaust fans create nega-
tive indoor air pressure, as in many textile mills, industrial plants, animal barns, poul-
try houses, greenhouses, etc.
3. No cooling load is caused by ordinary evaporation of moisture into indoor air
from exposed water, plant foliage, human or animal skin or breath, etc. Virtually
always the resulting vapors are swept outdoors by moving washed air from the coolers
without creating a heat balance.
4. Ducts for evaporative cooling are usually much simpler, shorter, straighter, and
larger than those for refrigerative cooling or heating. Their design is conventional' and
without complications.

Abbreviations
In the following chapters the following standard abbreviations will be used:
Absolute abs
Acidity units pH
Ampere amp
Average avg
British thermal unit Btu
British thermal units per hour Btuh
British thermal units per minute Btum
Cubic cu
Cubic feet per minute cfm
Cubic feet per second cfs
Degree, Fahrenheit F deg
Degree, temperature difference C deg
Dew point temperature dpt
Energy Efficiency Ratio EER
 Introduction / 3

Feet per minute fpm

Feet per second fps
Foot ft
Gallon gal
Gallons per minute gpm
Heat content or enthalpy H
Horsepower hp
Horsepower-hour hp-hr
Hour hr
Humidity, absolute or specific sh
Humidity, relative rh
Inch in.
Inches, water gauge in. w.g.
Kilowatt kw
Kilowatt-hour kwh
Mean Radiant Temperature MRT
Miles per hour mph
Minute mm
Ounce oz
Pound lb
Pounds per square foot psf
Pounds per square inch psi
Relative humidity rh
Revolutions per minute rpm
Revolutions per second rps
Second sec
Specific gravity sp gr
Specific heat sp ht
Specific volume sp vol
Square inch sq in.
Square foot sq ft
Temperature, dry-bulb For dbt
Temperature, Effective ET
Temperature, wet-bulb wbt
Volt V
Watt w
Watthour wh

SI (Metric) Abbreviations
Centimeter cm
Cubic centimeter cc
Cubic meter m3
Cubic meters per minute m 3 jmin
Cubic meters per second m3js
Degree, Centigrade (Celsius) deg C
Degree, temperature difference deg
Gram gr
Hour h
Joule J
Kilogram kg
Kilojoule kJ
Kilometer km
4 / EVAPORATIVE AIR CONDITIONING HANDBOOK

Kilograms per minute kg/min

Kilograms per second kg/s
KiloJoules per minute kJ/min
KiloJoules per second kJ/s
Kilometers per hour kmh
Kilometers per minute km/min
Kilometers per second km/s
Kilowatt kW
Kilowatts per hour kW/h
Liter I
Liters per minute l/min
Liters per second 1/ s
Meter m
Meters per minute m/min
Meters per second m/s
Millimeter mm
Power, mechanical or electrical kW
Pressure, water gauge or Pascals Pa
Refrigerating capacity or tons kW
Square centimeter cm 2
Square meter m2
Temperature, dry bulb Cor dbt
Temperature, Effective ET
Temperature, wet bulb wbt
Watt W
Watt-hour Wh

English-Metric Equivalents
See table in Appendix.