subject: Advantages of evaporative cooling method [print this page] Advantages of evaporative cooling method Advantages of evaporative cooling method
How do you think the animals combat the stifling heat during summer since they are devoid of air conditioners or fans unlike us? The animals use the principle of cooling by evaporation. This can be explained like this; generally we sweat when the atmosphere around us is hot. The sweat on our skin evaporates but during the process, it absorbs a little bit of the ambient energy in the air, cooling it in the process. The effect can be easily detected if you rub a little rubbing alcohol on the skin, which causes it to cool down considerably.
The same process is done by animals for getting some relief from the scorching heat. But they don't do with the sweat glands as they don't have it unlike humans. The same applies to dogs who don't have sweat glands but are blesses with big sloppy tongues which hang out during hot times. Moisture which is evaporating from the dog's tongue causes the ambient air to cool down too. Thus the heat is been drawn away from dog. In the same manner, the evaporative cooling system can be used for making the atmosphere cool; the misting systems and outdoor misting fans.
What are misting systems?
In a misting system, a series of tubing is interlaced into the shade structures or the porch ceiling directly and is connected directly to the water supply. Thus the system supplies a fine spray of water over the shaded area. The fine mist is caused by micro droplets of liquid water. Since it is a liquid it has the capability to evaporate and the process takes place while it is in the air or after it is landed on a surface. Thus the surrounding area or the surface is cooled due to evaporation. The size of the mist is been determined by the nozzle in the pump module which pressurizes the water. The whole set up is significant which requires connecting the tubing to pressure pump, arranging the tubing as well as affixing nozzles to the respective desired locations.
What are outdoor misting fans?
If there are set up restraints with misting systems, the outdoor misting fans overcome all such concerns. The misting fans would be regular looking fans with a nozzle in its center face. The nozzle would be attached to a high pressure pump which would spray water out the front of the fan. The water drops that come out would be additionally propelled and carried by the current of the fan. The misting fan has the advantage of portability and the set-up is also less intensive. Since fan is having only a single nozzle, the area covered would be less compared to the misting systems.
Benefits of portable misting fans
There is one common limitation with misting systems and outdoor misting fans; they need to be attached to a water supply using hoses and tubing. This problem has been tackled with the introduction of portable misting fans. Portable ones would have a self contained water reservoir. Since the mist would be formed using very fine water particles, the water contained in the reservoir would last for about 5 hours of continuous misting. The fans would have wheels allowing more portability.
