Re: South Western US and Air Conditioning.

Posted by JWL On 2012/6/9 9:20:06

Keith,

Don't know about refrigerated air conditioning, but many folks living in the arid southwest use evaporative coolers. These are units, usually installed on the roof that have a water supply, a small pump, and a fan. The pump distributes water onto fiber mats that are on the walls of the unit. A fan pulls air through the wetted mats, cooling it, and distributing it to the interior. The water on the mats drains back into a small container and recirculated. There is a simple float and valve assembly to control the amount of new water added to the container. Since there is no need to remove humidity from the air this system works well, even adding some humidity to the dry air. A sliding door is used to isolate the cooler from the interior during cold weather. Many people also cover their units with a heavy fabric cover. The advantage of evaporative coolers is they only use a fan motor (and a small pump); hence, their electrical use is much less than required by a refrigerated type. The downside is that these systems require some maintenance at the beginning of the cooling season and must have the water shut off and water drained at the close of the season.

Refrigerated air conditioning is finding its way into use, replacing the evaporative types. Refrigerated units are replacing evaporative probably because of the lower maintenance requirements.

Probably more than you ever wanted to know on this subject. Howard, care to comment?

(o[]o)