Refrigeration as such is a common problem not only in manufacturing, but also in restaurants and households. Most establishments and people automatically reach for the most widely used cooling systems, namely air conditioners. We bring you an article that unveils a new way of cooling and compares it with air conditioners in industrial premises.
What is adiabatic cooling?
Adiabatic cooling works on the principle of spraying micron-sized particles of water that are 10 times smaller than the diameter of a hair. The cold sprayed water binds the ambient heat to itself and evaporates instantly. You can see this cooling principle in the wild, for example at waterfalls. The nozzles on adiabatic systems create a “mist” around them, so that micron-sized droplets of water can cool the area in a quick time. This is a flash evaporation method, whereby the water vapour can reduce the temperature by 5 – 8°C without the need for chemicals and other harmful substances.
However, it is important to note that adiabatic cooling does not work like standard air conditioning, so we cannot set the exact temperature on it, for example 22°C. Compared to air conditioning, our systems don’t dry out the air because air conditioners essentially blow dry air of a certain temperature.
The biggest advantage of adiabatic cooling indoors is that it not only cools the air, but also humidifies it to natural values. This reduces dust, increases work efficiency and maintains a healthy working environment for employees and machines without making the room wet.
Energy and cost comparison
When comparing the cost of running air conditioning and adiabatic systems, we have a clear winner. For air conditioning, the electricity consumption is in the broader range of 200-500kW/hr. Sanfog adiabatic systems, which are capable of cooling an equally large space, consume up to 5kW/hr in the same amount of time. In both the short and long term, this is an extreme saving in energy costs.
In terms of initial investment and return on investment, for an investment of up to €70,000 the ROI or return on investment is 37 months which is an excellent figure.
Another big difference is that no chemical refrigerants are used in adiabatic systems, which prevents the release of ozone-depleting substances that create the greenhouse effect.
Humidification does not mean wet!
First of all, we want to stress that water vapour cooling does not create wet or damp areas in the workplace. The water droplets are so small that they evaporate in a flash before travelling a maximum distance of one metre. Our systems are fitted with complex control systems that know exactly how much water to dispense. This ensures that there is no risk of materials, people and machines getting wet. There is no condensation and no corrosion. The control system strictly monitors the humidity level and the ambient temperature, so it can’t happen that the system raises the humidity to such a level that something gets waterlogged. All of our equipment is ISO certified and Sanfog is the only company in the country that is also ISO certified for the installation process and the design, engineering, and engineering of adiabatic and humidification systems.
Another great advantage is that our equipment can disinfect the entire space at the same time during cooling. The disinfection is 100% health-safe and also leaves no traces of moisture or wetness. You can read about it in our next article.