Evaporative Cooler Predictive Control to Prevent Humidity Overshoot
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional evaporative coolers suffer from inefficiencies, unresponsiveness, resource waste, and unsatisfactory performance, leading to temperature and humidity swings that compromise occupant comfort. They have slow response times, often overshooting or undershooting desired comfort levels and wasting resources when mechanical cooling is used to supplement evaporative cooling.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of systems and methods for evaporative cooling control, which involve receiving humidity and/or temperature setpoints for a designated space, measuring atmospheric conditions using sensors, generating a performance prediction of the evaporative cooler, and controlling the flow of fluid over the evaporative media to prevent setpoints from being exceeded. This approach dynamically adjusts to changing conditions, optimizing comfort and resource usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional evaporative coolers operate on a closed feedback loop, then they can maintain basic cooling function, but they suffer from slow response times and are unable to adjust effectively to changing outside conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary calculations of predicted psychrometric properties and anticipated humidity levels before the cooling cycle actually executes. By pre-calculating the expected performance based on current atmospheric conditions and evaporative media state, the system can anticipate future humidity levels and adjust the cooling cycle proactively rather than reactively, eliminating the lag between condition changes and system response.
Solution Approach 2:
The control system dynamically adjusts the evaporative cooler operation by continuously monitoring atmospheric conditions and recalculating predicted performance in real-time. The cooling cycle parameters (such as fan speed, water flow rate) are dynamically modified based on the comparison between predicted psychrometric properties and comfort thresholds, enabling the system to adapt rapidly to changing outside conditions without the slow response characteristic of conventional fixed-cycle systems.
2Reliability
If conventional evaporative coolers run continuously to maintain cooling, then they provide consistent temperature control, but they waste resources including water and energy when mechanical cooling is used to supplement
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where the actual performance of the evaporative cooler is continuously monitored and compared against the predicted psychrometric properties. When the evaporative cooler achieves the desired cooling effect (predicted humidity and temperature meet comfort thresholds), the system shuts off the cooler to conserve resources. When predicted performance falls short of thresholds, the system activates mechanical cooling supplementation. This feedback-driven approach eliminates continuous operation and resource waste while maintaining reliable temperature and humidity control.
3Temperature
If evaporative media is used to cool air through evaporation, then cooling effect is achieved, but the response time for the media to become fully wet is slow, taking many minutes
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary calculations of the predicted psychrometric properties that will result from applying a specific cooling cycle to the evaporative cooler. By calculating the anticipated performance before execution, the system can determine the optimal water flow rate and fan operation to achieve full wetting of the evaporative media as quickly as possible, reducing the minutes-long wet-up time to a much faster response.
4Reliability
If conventional evaporative coolers shut down when humidity exceeds setpoint, then they prevent over-humidification, but they continue outputting humid air for up to an hour after shutdown due to slow response time
Solution Approach 1:
The system calculates predicted psychrometric properties and anticipated humidity levels in advance, before the cooling cycle completes. When the prediction indicates that shutting down the evaporative cooler will cause humidity to remain above the setpoint for an extended period, the system proactively adjusts the shutdown timing or implements a gradual ramp-down of the cooling cycle. This preliminary assessment eliminates the hour-long lag where humid air continues to be output after shutdown, as the system can anticipate and prepare for the media drying process.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution provides fine control of temperature and humidity, rapid response to changing conditions, resource conservation, and optimized occupant comfort by precisely managing the evaporative cooling process based on predicted performance and setpoint comparisons.
Implementation Method 1
water is spread across evaporative media, which adds humidity and cools incoming air through evaporation
Implementation Method 2
The evaporative cooler has evaporative media and one or more pumps. A flow of fluid is controlled over the evaporative media using the one or more pumps
Data Source
AI summary
Implementations described and claimed herein provide systems and methods for evaporative cooling control. In one implementation, a humidity setpoint is received for a designated space, and at least one atmospheric condition of ambient air is received. The at least one atmospheric condition is measured using one or more ambient air sensors. A performance prediction of an evaporative cooler is generated by calculating a set of one or more predicted psychrometric properties of supply air leaving the evaporative cooler based on the at least one atmospheric condition. The humidity setpoint is compared to the set of one or more predicted psychrometric properties of the performance prediction in a setpoint comparison. A flow of fluid is controlled over evaporative media using one or more pumps of the evaporative cooler. The flow of the fluid is controlled based on the setpoint comparison such that the humidity setpoint is prevented from being exceeded.