Do yo know anything about AC misters?

Question

I saw these online(and no I'm not trying to sell anyone anything) and I was wondering if they worked? I'm trying to lower my power consumption and I've never seen such a thing. Does anyone have any experience with anything like this? I'd even settle for an educated guess. Thanks
http://www.acmister.com/products/

Answer 1

It would work. How much it would save would depend on how hot the condenser gets where it is located. Heat travels from hot to cold and the greater the difference between the two makes it travel faster. If you can increase the difference by making the condensation coils cooler the heat will travel faster and the unit will be more efficient. That's why they recommend you have the condenser in the shade if possible and even have louvered shades that you can buy to shade the unit. The evaporation of the water that is sprayed on the condenser by the apparatus in the advertisement will make the difference more by cooling the condenser coils. Of course your water bill will go up but by how much I don't know. It appears to be just misters that you direct toward the condenser coils and probably has a connection to a water source with a magnetically controlled valve that turns the water on when the unit comes on. We had one at a place I worked that some mechanics devised but there again I don't know how efficient it was... I know you have seen the water towers on some big buildings that use a combination of water and air to cool condensers.. Same theory but in this case the water isn't recirculated..

Answer 2

It would work, but you will have some offset to savings in the higher water costs. Another potential problem, this constant mist of water will cause the metal components of your condenser to corrode more quickly, shortening the live of the condenser (and these are pretty expensive, so the savings may not pay for a replacement condenser). Finally, the additional water around the condenser may cause runoff problems around the condenser unit, causing the pad it set on to tilt/move.