Air Cooled Closed Circuit Coolers

Indirect closed circuit is a cooling process that uses direct air cooled closed circuit coolers, cooling in addition to some type of heat exchanger to transfer the cool energy to the supply air. The cooled moist air from the direct evaporative cooling process never comes in direct contact with the conditioned supply air. The moist air stream is released outside or used to cool other external devices such as solar cells which are more efficient if kept cool. One indirect cooler manufacturer uses the so-called Maisotsenko cycle which employs an iterative (multi-step) heat exchanger that can reduce the temperature of product air to below the wet-bulb temperature, and can a approach the dew point.[17] While no moisture is added to the incoming air the relative humidity (RH) does rise a little according to the Temperature-RH formula. Still, the relatively dry air resulting from indirect evaporative cooling allows inhabitants’ perspiration to evaporate more easily, increasing the relative effectiveness of this technique. Indirect Cooling is an effective strategy for hot-humid climates that cannot afford to increase the moisture content of the supply air due to indoor air quality and human thermal comfort concerns. The following graphs describe the process of direct and indirect evaporative cooling with the changes in temperature, moisture content and relative humidity of the air.

Passive indirect cooling strategies are rare because this strategy involves an architectural element to act as a heat exchanger (for example a roof). This element can be sprayed with water and cooled through the evaporation of the water on this element. These strategies are rare due to the high use of water, which also introduces the risk of water intrusion and compromising building structure.

Specifications

• Cooler pads consist of excelsior (aspen wood fiber) inside a containment net, but more modern materials, such as some plastics and melamine paper, are entering use as cooler-pad media.

Applications

• Apart from fans used in mechanical evaporative cooling, pumps are the only other piece of mechanical equipment required for the evaporative cooling process in both mechanical and passive applications.

Advantages

• Heat in the air evaporates water from the pads which are constantly re-dampened to continue the cooling process.