Effect of Different Cooling Pad Materials on the Performance of the Evaporative Cooler

Abstract

Air conditioning (AC) becomes the most necessary appliance in homes and offices in every developed and developing country for achieving the required thermal comfort condition. But the literature reveals that the excessive use of AC creates physiological discomfort such as headache, alleging symptoms (fever, cold, itching) chest pain, etc. The above mention issues may be mitigated up to a certain level by using an evaporative cooler instead of ACs. The evaporative cooling technology can cool buildings using less energy and without refrigerant. A good evaporative cooling system has a higher cooling efficiency by consuming less amount of water. In the present work, the effect of different cooling pads on the performance of the evaporative cooler are analyzed. Three different types of cooling pad materials such as Wood wool (khus), Honeycomb, and palm tree fiber were examined. Wood wool and honeycomb paper fiber are now frequently used in the production of evaporative cooling pads. The new material palm tree fiber cooling pad has also been tested in a laboratory using a suitably fabricated test setup. The cooling efficiency of evaporative cooling was measured and compared with that of wood wool and honeycomb. The cooling efficiency of the cooler is calculated for various air velocities. The result reveals that the cooling efficiency of the cooler with palm tree fiber is more than the honeycomb whereas less than the wood wool fiber cooling pads.