Air conditioners cool homes and businesses by absorbing heat inside the buildings and releasing the heat to the outdoors. Most in use today release the heat through air-cooled condensers. These units include the typical residential split-system air conditioner with the condensing unit outdoors, and packaged rooftop units that are often used on commercial buildings.

One common problem with air conditioning units that use air-cooled condensers is the frequent onslaught of contaminants. Dirt, debris such as cottonwood or grass, and other contaminants repeatedly clog up on the condenser coils. This is important because the cooling capacity of the evaporator, and indeed the amount of compressor work needed, is directly related to the heat or energy that can be released through the condenser coil. A clogged coil means less cooling capacity.

Keeping a residential condenser coil clean may require removing a protective wireguard and then pressure washing and brushing the fins of the coil. A commercial unit generally has a larger coil and can be in a greasy or dirty, less accessible environment. Less conscientious maintenance crews very often neglect cleaning. Unfortunately, there have not been any devices used for capturing grease and other aerosol contaminants, such as paint, that would be effective in protecting the condenser coil surfaces from being coated with these materials.

Until now, that is. Mist Ecology’s precoolers provide a more effective means to capture grease and other debris, increasing the cooling capacity and decreasing the electrical consumption of air conditioners. By misting or evaporating a small amount of water into the ambient airflow (air coming from outside), we are able to not only increase cooling capacity, but also decrease power consumption, improving the operating efficiency by as much as 30% to 40%.