A/C Condenser Evaporative Cooling Assist

valhalla360 wrote:
What exactly are you considering an evaporative cooler? Is it simply a mister that sprays across the condenser or are you thinking of a separate unit (swamp cooler) that then feeds pre-cooled air to the condenser.

Where are you getting the water for the system? The normal water you see dripping off RV air/con units is pure water condensed from the air with no mineral content.

Your typical campground water supply is mineral laden well water. If the excess slowly drips down the side of the unit, it would presumably leave heavy mineral deposits.

In principal reduced power consumption is good but unless you are on a permanent site, electricity is typically included in the site rental, so no savings for the end user.

I am talking about a true evaporative cooler to deal with the issue of keeping water off the condenser coils for the reasons you mention. The system I designed years ago used the old style Aspen wood evaporator cooler pad held by a wood frame with chicken wire to contain the pad and heavy rubber foam weather stripping where it mated to the condenser cabinet in front of the condenser coils. A pvc pipe with small holes drilled at one inch intervals fed by clear vinyl slide on hose attached to an evaporator cooler pump kept the pad wet. The pump sat in a plastic dish pan in a hole in the ground so the top of the pan was level with the top of the condenser concrete pad. Water was collected by a tray made of aluminum flashing and was open at one end to drain into the dish pan so the pump could recirculate the water back to the top of the pad. The dish pan had a water float valve fed by a quarter inch copper water line connected to an outdoor faucet. The pump was wired into one side of the contactor and only ran when the condenser unit was operating.

I had to make one change to the original design adding a cover to the dishpan when I discovered a frog happily perched on top of the float which caused water to flow continuously and overflow.

With respect to power saving I was thinking of those running off generator and at our house when we are prepping our trailer in hot TX Aug. for a trip to the mountains. We run the A/C for several days before leaving to help the RV fridge deal with 98+ deg temp sitting in full sun in our backyard.

In addition based on my research years ago, an A/C's BTU capacity is rated at 95 deg. As the ambient temp goes up above that temp the unit loses capacity when you need it the most. The evaporative cooler keeps you from losing capacity.