Water cooled systems do require more maintenance as stated above but the maintenance costs are also offset by the longer life times these systems benefit from.
Water cooled air conditioning systems wacs.
Water cooled air conditioning systems wacs are intrinsically have a higher cop coefficient of performance than air cooled air conditioning systems aacs.
How water cooled air conditioning systems work.
Note that each specific cooling system should be analyzed because of variances mineral content of make up water system load annual hours of operation etc to determine site specific energy savings greenhouse gas ghg reductions.
Whereas an air cooled system would require less maintenance it would also break or require costly part or unit replacements.
Fresh water from lakes or rivers is preferred to seawater as.
Currently majority of the air conditioning systems in non domestic premises are electrical motor driven centralized air cooled type with fair energy efficiency.
This table compares air cooled and water cooled systems using national averages for a 400 ton cooling system.
It has been found that there are no mathematical models and energy simulation programs to enable detailed investigation and evaluation into the energy performance of water cooled air conditioners.
Water is used to cool the hot air refrigerant 180 f or 82 c from the compressor by pumping counter flow water in the condenser.
Owners of non domestic buildings 1 and other buildings 2 are encouraged to use fresh water cooling towers and to join the fresh water cooling towers scheme.
Water cooled air conditioning systems wacs are widely used in the commercial sector for energy efficiency but not in the domestic sector.
Wacs using fresh water cooling towers for individual building is generally more energy efficient consuming up to 20 less electricity than air cooled air conditioning systems.
Since the energy cost for air conditioning often accounts for a dominant portion of the operating cost of a building water cooled air conditioning systems wacs are preferred to air cooled air conditioning systems aacs wherever cooling water can be made available at a low cost.
Water cooled air conditioner is also called water cooled condenser as its function is to reject the heat that was absorbed by the refrigerant in the evaporator.