Solar Swamp Cooling

Swamp cooling, or evaporative cooling, is a simple and time-tested type of air conditioning. It is both low cost and low technology, using as little as one quarter the amount of electricity as standard air conditioning. Swamp cooling utilizes water evaporation to cool ambient air. Fresh outside air is drawn via fan into the cooler where it passes through moist pads, is cooled by evaporation, and recirculated throughout the home. According to Consumer Energy Center, swamp coolers can reduce outside air temperature by as much as 30 degrees.

Because swamp coolers use a relatively small amount of electricity and work best in dry desert climates, they are prime candidates to use solar energy. Swamp coolers increase the humidity in the surrounding air, a fact that limits the benefits of evaporative cooling in moist climates but only makes it a more perfect match with solar power in desert climates. Swamp coolers become more efficient as the outside temperature increases. So in the afternoon, when the air is hottest and the sun shining brightest, is when the solar swamp cooler is most needed and most efficient and when photovoltaic solar panels are at their best as well.

At least one company, Coolerado, has devised a sort of indirect evaporative cooler, which passes cooled air by a heat exchanger, drawing off its humidity sending cool, dry air into the home. This improvement on the conventional swamp cooler makes evaporative cooling usable in any climate. Drawing as little as 600 watts of power, Coolerado's air conditioners can easily be handled by a solar power installation.

Compressor Cooling / Swamp Cooling / Solar Misting System / Solar Cooling Tower