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1,000s of years of evaporative cooling

We’re known for expertise in smoke control, natural ventilation and other systems that govern airflow, safety and comfort. However, our focus on sustainable, energy efficient solutions has kept us away from traditional air conditioning systems.
In line with this sustainable mantra we have become very interested in evaporative cooling and are very excited to announce that our colleagues from Adexsi Europe have developed an incredible product for comfort cooling that shares the energy-efficient values of natural comfort ventilation but adds greater control with the use of evaporating water.
This product line is now available in the UK.
 
Principle of operation
The concept of evaporative cooling (otherwise known as adiabatic cooling) can be traced back over 1000s of years: Egyptian frescoes from about 2500 BC show slaves fanning jars of water to cool rooms for their masters; 1000 years ago ancient Iranians built constructions to manipulate water and air, called qanats; and these days to experience the sensation yourself you just need to go for a walk near the seaside – the air is always cooler by the water.
The principle can be summed up as energy being taken from the air to facilitate a state change in water (evaporation) resulting in the temperature of that air being reduced, while relative humidity increases (the latter is controlled in this instance by the design of modern adiabatic cooling technology).
That adds up to passing air through a heat exchanger kept humid by a water circulation pump; a simple and elegant solution to cooling that’s low-energy and takes advantage of natural phenomena.
One of the core advantages of such a system is that the warmer the atmosphere gets, the more efficient the cooling system becomes. Plus evaporative cooling continues to work well even if doors and windows open.
Using Adexsi’s own systems can create up to 50kW worth of cooling from only 1kW of input power, and as no refrigerants are used (just good old water) there is no risk of pollution.
 
Bottom line benefits
Compared to traditional air conditioning, evaporative cooling systems bring tangible benefits from a financial standpoint. The most obvious are the simple installation, greatly reduced running costs and economical maintenance (there are simply fewer moving parts than in a standard air conditioning system).
The system uses 10x less electricity than air conditioning, and we calculate overall running costs as 6x lower – the advantages are pretty obvious!
 
Maintenance
The only issue with maintaining the functionality of an adiabatic cooling system is keeping on top of scale build-up, which will lower the efficiency of the system if not kept on top of. It’s a simple fix, however, and there are no serious side effects even if a system is left to linger a little too long. Modern evaporative cooling systems use pads to hold the water and always automatically drain when evaporative cooling stops, ensuring there is no stagnant water to pose a health risk.
 
Why it’s right for Adexsi UK and our customers
We’re proud to offer evaporative cooling to UK customers via the Adexsi ADIABOX, manufactured within the group by Souchier Boullet. The system can be specified to offer airflows from 1,000 to 30,000 m3/h, with variable speed motors, programmable controllers and high efficiency pads. The ADIABOX automatically drains its tank before scale build up gets too high, and the pads have a five year lifespan. The NF version can even operate without adding any additional humidity to the fresh air in the building. If you’d like to find out what this system can do for your own project, please just give us a call on 0845 084 0555.