Evaporative Cooling Could Increase Your Turnover

Many car dealers shy away from air conditioning units due to the very high cost of installation, maintenance and running - air conditioning systems use up an excessive amount of energy. Thanks to a new awareness of energy efficiency, evaporative cooling for shops and stores is achieving a new popularity.

The use of direct evaporative cooling is not new and the concepts and equipment are fully developed and readily available. Evaporative technology has advanced rapidly in recent years and is now made from materials that are lighter and more durable as well as being corrosion free. Systems such as Breezair are capable of withstanding virtually all environmental conditions ensuring years of trouble free operation. Easy to install and operate, evaporative cooling is ideal for all retail outlets including shops, departmental stores and shopping malls.

Harnessing the natural evaporative process is where the real science lies behind the successful commercialisation of evaporative cooling. Direct evaporative air coolers with a saturation efficiency of at least 80% can, easily cool buildings from about 50C to 12ºC below the outdoor air temperature, depending on the climatic conditions. Refrigerated air conditioning can achieve the same but is unable to provide a through-flow of healthy fresh air and will cost substantially more to install and run. In addition, refrigerated air conditioners usually reduce the essential moisture and recirculates inside air that may contain varying degrees of contaminants.

Evaporative air-cooling offers 50 to 70 percent energy savings compared to conventional air conditioning. The reason evaporative systems use less energy is that unlike refrigerative systems, they do not have an energy-consuming compressor to compress vapour and condense it back into liquid to repeat the cooling cycle. Instead, evaporative coolers just use fresh water to achieve high efficiency cooling. Evaporative air-cooling also has the additional advantage of being an open system as opposed to the closed ventilation system of refrigerant-based air conditioning. Because a constant natural flow of 100% fresh air is drawn into the building and then expelled, odours, germs and airborne contaminants are removed and not recirculated around the shop, store or mall.

Evaporative coolers contain large filter pads, which are kept wet by a water distribution system. Hot air is drawn through the pads by a powerful centrifugal fan and is cooled by the evaporative process. In this way, the air is cooled without introducing water droplets through aerosols. A constant flow of naturally, cooled, fresh air is provided, without any air being recirculated. As the temperature outside rises, the cooling capacity of evaporative cooling increases, ensuring that the building remains at a comfortable and constant temperature.

Whilst many car dealerships are aware of the need for ventilation to improve air quality, they are unaware that evaporative cooling combines cooling and ventilation in one versatile appliance. For just an additional 20% more than the cost of a standard ventilating system, shops and store can install an evaporative air-cooling system, which will improve the retail outlet’s atmospheric conditions thereby helping to increase sales and improve workers’ morale.

Evaporative air-cooling systems, such as Breezair, have wall-mounted climate control panels with control modes. In Auto mode they monitor the temperature and personal comfort setting, automatically increasing or decreasing the fan speed to maintain comfort. The fan speed can be varied manually in Manual mode and the system can be programmed in Timer mode to be switched on and off within a 24 hour period. The cool/vent mode gives the simple choice of operating the system as a cooler or ventilator as required.

Evaporative cooling can provide excellent cooling and ventilation with minimal energy consumption using water as a working fluid and avoiding the use of global warming HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) as used by compressor type systems. It not only improves the environment by removing contaminants but also provides a cost effective cooling system for shops and stores that can only result in a win, win situation for storeowners and their employees.