Designed for industrial refrigeration, industrial processes, and HVAC, icevibe’s evaporative condensers lower system condensing temperatures thereby reducing compressor horsepower, saving up to 15% energy compared to traditional air-cooled systems. This cost-effective cooling solution condenses refrigerant vapor in a coil that is continually sprayed with water. As the water evaporates, fans reject this heated vapor to the atmosphere.

Principle of Operation

The vapor to be condensed is circulated through a condensing coil, which is continually wetted on the outside by a recirculating water system. Air is pulled over the coil, causing a small portion of the recirculating water to evaporate. The evaporation removes heat from the vapor in the coil, causing it to condense.

Combined Flow Configuration

icevibe manufactures two types of evaporative condensers: combined flow and counterflow. Combined flow is the use of both a condensing coil and fill surface for heat transfer in an evaporative condenser. The addition of fill surface to the traditional evaporative condenser design reduces evaporation in the coil section, reducing the potential for scaling and fouling. BAC’s combined flow evaporative condensers utilize parallel flow of air and spray water over the coil, and crossflow air/water flow through the fill surface. In parallel flow, air and water flow over the coil in the same direction. In the fill section of BAC’s combined flow evaporative condensers, air and water interact in a crossflow configuration: water flows vertically down the fill as air flows horizontally across it.

Counterflow Configuration

In a counterflow evaporative condenser design, the flow of the air is in the opposite direction of the spray water. In BAC’s counterflow evaporative condensers, air travels vertically up through the unit while the spray water travels vertically down over the coil. The flow of air through most factory assembled evaporative condensers is provided by one or more mechanically driven fans.