Question:

I have a really small cabin that I use a portable air conditioner. It works good until the temps outside rise above 90 degrees. Anything in the 100’s, or 110, it can’ tkeep up. I live in a VERY dry climate with < 10% humidity. I was thinking of also getting a portable evaporative cooler and running them both at the same time. Do you think there would be any benefit? I would like to add some humidity to the air anyway..

Reply:

Without going into a lot of detail the short answer is no. Evaporative cooling and refrigerated cooling working in the same environment do not work. The 2 types of cooling do effectively cancel themselves out.
If you do have a humidity problem and wish to cool your cabin you should invest in a dedicated humidifier that supplies the required humidity and can also be regulated according to your settings.
Sounds also that you need to upgrade to an A/C unit that will do the job. My advice is to buy a unit that will perform better in high temperatures conditions, have a heat load calculation carried out on your premises, they are usually given free with a quote for a new unit.
FYI: The industrial computer rooms of the past have struggled with this conundrum for many years and found the only solution to be as I have stated above or installed A/C units that have built in humidification systems.
Hope this helps.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Evaporative Cooling, Humidity - Humidification. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.