Cooling with environmental responsibility
June 1st 2008

Anyone associated with facilities management in the public and commercial sector is facing an ever increasing challenge in the cooling of buildings.

Electricity prices have made air conditioning a luxury that many cannot afford. The carbon impact of refrigeration-based systems cannot be lessened just by demanding a reduction of carbon.

On top of this the latest building regulations, building design, occupancy and activity levels are actually calling for more cooling! Until recently the options for cooling buildings has been limited to either ventilation or air-conditioning.

While ventilation can be effective for most of the year it fails to create comfortable conditions during hot periods. Air conditioning can maintain the comfort levels required – but at a price! Evaporative cooling falls between the two. In the UK the air temperature coming off an evaporative cooler will never normally go above 22°C. In simple terms an evaporative cooler turns summer temperatures into spring temperatures. When this is used as part of a balanced ventilation scheme then comfortable conditions can be maintained all year round.

Typically an evaporative cooler is 25% of the capital cost and only 10% of the running cost of a traditional air conditioning system. As an example one cooler can produce 35kW of cooling from 1.5kW of power. This equates to one cooler providing enough cool air for 250sqm for less than 10p per hour. Carbon Trust loans and Salix funding can also be applied for due to energy savings and low carbon emissions.

Refrigerant free it provides a constant flow of fresh cooled air which maintains oxygen levels to maximise exercise rates and recovery, this is particularly relevant in gyms and sports halls.Air contaminated with sweat is removed from the building. In hot weather the air is also humidified and so reduces the dehydration associated with many air conditioning systems.

Many buildings also suffer from high solar gains during the summer months Evaporative cooling can solve these problems and maintain comfortable conditions by producing cool fresh air into a building and extracting the hot dry air through a carefully designed extract system.

While evaporative cooling is a long established principle for cooling, new techniques have been developed for control, safety and performance. Seminars can be arranged to explain these in detail and include a comprehensive review of evaporative cooling and legionella management. Wetted media evaporative coolers are a low risk device due to absence of droplets and a low water circulation temperature. This is explained in detailed with reference to HSE guidelines ACOP L8. Operating standards have now reached the point where EcoCoolers have been installed in both UK hospital trusts and schools.

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