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Cost effective evaporative cooling

Published:  12 April, 2019

Last year’s unusually hot summer caused disruption for many factories and industrial facilities where overheating staff and customers resulted in drops in production and sales. While refrigeration systems are often considered too expensive and uneconomical for large space cooling, evaporative cooling offers a cost effective and reliable alternative.

Herman Miller, the global manufacturer of office furniture, is a good example of how innovation within energy efficient technologies can not only improve the working environment, but save costs from a company’s bottom line.

Nine ECP EcoCooler Small units were installed for the manufacturing space – enabling control of the air temperature and humidity levels in the assembly and manufacturing machine areas; acting as a recirculation system for winter and a ventilator or evaporative cooling system for the summer. The external units are roof mounted so require no floor or external space for installation. All work was carried out during business hours and does not require any downtime.

EcoCooling says the cooling solution will improve the working environment for Herman Miller’s staff and deliver energy savings to the company. Even on the very hottest summer days the EcoCoolers will supply fresh air cooling at temperatures below 23oC at typically less than 10% of the operating costs of refrigeration.

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During colder weather the EcoCooling system works in ventilation mode, outside air is used to cool the building while hot air is extracted out. On hotter days, the natural process of evaporation is used in EcoCoolers to cool incoming air. By evaporating water into the air, temperatures are reduced without the need for mechanical refrigeration, making evaporative cooling an economically viable and green option for large building and process cooling.

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Energy Consumption: Running costs for a single unit ECP external EcoCooler Small based on an average airflow of 12,000 m3/hr are:

Utility                                                               Usage and Cost per Hour

Electrical Consumption                                       £0.120

Water Consumption (average)                             £0.012

Total Cost per Hour                                             £0.132

Total cost per 168-hour continuous working week  £22.18

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