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Does evaporative cooling apply to humidifiers?

Clint

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I've got a new ultrasonic fogger in my terrarium (increased humidity a whopping 30 percents!) with a fan blowing across it. Almost all of the fog all evaporates as the fan blows it across the 4 foot terrarium. Does this count as evaporative cooling or not? The breeze feels pretty cool but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
 
yes, but it is inversely proportional to humidty levels.... read about "latent heat of evaporation", I believe that is the right term... been a while

you can get big outside fan/mist/evap coolers now for yard or patio parties, same basic concept IIRC

Av
 
A little bit of heat will be used transforming the water from liquid particles into free vapor, but what Av says is also true. Just humidifying a sealed tank won't do much. If you use an outside source of cool, dry air and humidify that, you'll maximize your cooling capability.
~Joe
 
If you use an outside source of cool, dry air and humidify that, you'll maximize your cooling capability.
~Joe

Yep, since once the air is saturated it won't accept anymore, so the water will not evaporate and will not cool the air. That's why swamp coolers suck air outside, blow it inside, and has to blow back out (through open doors/windows) if you have a swamp cooler inside, it won't cool because the air is too saturated. That's why it sucks here so much during the monsoon season, they just don't work.
 
It's not sealed tank, it's just got a 2 foot cover in the middle with both sides open (1 foot x 18 inches wide open on each side)

The humidity outside the tank is like.. 60% at 70 degrees.

I guess if the air already has a 92% RH level then not much is gonna happen, huh? lol.
 
not as far as cooling goes. This is supposed to help explain the relationship of humidity and cooling:


Psychrometric_chart_simplified.png


Some rough examples of temp in relation to humidity:

* At 32°C (90°F) and 15% relative humidity, air may be cooled to nearly 16°C (60°F). The dew point for these conditions is 2°C (~36°F).
* At 32°C (90°F) and 50% relative humidity, air may be cooled to about 24°C (75°F). The dew point for these conditions is 20°C (~68°F).
* At 40°C (105°F) and 15% relative humidity, air may be cooled to nearly 21°C (70°F). The dew point for these conditions is 8°C (~47°F).
 
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