Reducing Carbon Emissions by using Evaporative Cooling

Many modern buildings require cooling either for the comfort of the occupants or to protect the processes or equipment they contain. There are three typical methods which can be employed to cool these buildings; ventilation, evaporative cooling or a refrigeration based air conditioning system. The choice of system can have a dramatic effect on the total carbon emissions of the building due to their different electrical demands. See our Air Conditioning comparison to compare the features of Air Conditioning with Evaporative Cooling.

Ventilation systems can provide comfort cooling for most of the year. During prolonged periods of high temperatures they are unable to maintain internal temperatures below 25°C. Refrigeration based systems are effective but can be expensive to operate. Evaporative cooling, which can produce air consistently below 22°C in the UK climate, provides an intermediate solution which consumes only a fraction of the electricity.

An evaporative cooling installation typically consumes less than 15% of the electricity compared to the equivalent rated refrigeration based cooling system. The example shows how this electricity saving can result in 1.5 tonnes of carbon savings for a 30KW cooling requirement.

These savings are sufficient for most EcoCooler installations in Small to Medium Enterprises (SME’s) to qualify for an interest-free Carbon Trust Loan.