MegEvapIndustrial Evaporative Cooling
The Case for Evaporative

Why evaporative cooling wins

Rising energy prices and tightening environmental pressure keep making the same point: in the right application, nothing cools air as economically as evaporation. Here's the engineering behind the claim.

Energy Savings

AC fights heat with horsepower. We use water.

Air conditioning requires big compressor motors to make cold air. Evaporation gets it free from physics — the only power you pay for is a fan and a small pump.

In ventilation applications, that cuts operating costs by up to 80% — often just by adding a wet section to the air system you already own.

Dig deeper: the 150:1 math

A real scenario: a 10,000 CFM supply airstream needs to go from 90°F at 25% relative humidity down to 67.5°F. With refrigerated air conditioning, that 22.5° drop takes roughly 25 compressor horsepower. Through a MegEvap evaporative wet section, the same drop takes one-sixth of one horsepower — a small pump moving water over media, using fans already in place on the fresh-air intake.

Estimate what your facility could save

Refrigerated AC
25 HP
MegEvap wet section
⅙ HP
≈$3,350 estimated savings per cooling season

Illustrative estimate only — compressor vs. pump energy for a 22.5°F drop, assuming $0.12/kWh and a 1,500-hour season. Fans run in both systems. Your rates and hours will differ; we'll run real numbers for your facility. The physics holds at any size: about 150× less power.

Beyond the Power Bill

Cooling that cleans the air on the way in

Built-in filtration

Wet media works like flypaper for dust, smoke, pollen, and spores. The air coming out is better than the air going in.

Dig deeper

Contaminants hit the wet media surfaces and stick, then the media's self-cleaning water flow flushes them to the sump. Wet media even scrubs water-soluble VOCs and pollutants like CO, CO₂, SO₂, and NOₓ gases, and optional pre-filters catch larger particulates before they reach the media.

Less compressor wear

Every hour your compressors don't run is maintenance and wear you don't pay for.

Dig deeper

Offloading cooling to evaporative equipment extends refrigeration equipment life, cuts service costs, and reduces the risk of CFC refrigerant release. Systems with condenser pre-coolers do even better — the compressor works less for the same tonnage.

A visible green commitment

Less power drawn, fewer emissions on your books — a story regulators and customers notice.

Dig deeper

Lower power draw means lower generated-power demand and fewer greenhouse-gas emissions attributable to your operation. Reduced refrigeration runtime also lowers the risk of CFC release — an efficiency story you can point to with regulators, customers, and neighbors.

Where It Works

How would it do in your city?

Real ASHRAE design-day data — the hottest conditions your city plans around. Pick one and watch what walks out of the cooler.

Design-day heat in, estimated air out

94°F Air in
71°F Air out
−23°F est. on the design day

Estimates from ASHRAE 1% design-day conditions and published evaporative media performance. Your day-to-day results depend on actual weather and the unit selected.

Prime candidates

Low operating cost makes it practical to condition spaces long written off as too big or too expensive to cool:

  • Manufacturing floors, machine rooms, repair & welding shops
  • Warehouses & distribution centers
  • Agriculture — livestock confinement, milk barns, poultry houses
  • Food & beverage — winery barrel rooms, packing sheds, produce
  • Extreme heat — foundries, smelters & mines (spot cooling)

Is your climate a fit? Dry climates see the biggest drops, but ventilation, filtration, and pre-cooling benefits apply far more widely. Send us your location and we'll tell you honestly what to expect.

Common Questions

Evaporative cooling, answered straight

The questions we get asked most on the phone — with the same answers we'd give you there.

How much does evaporative cooling save compared to air conditioning?

In ventilation applications, evaporative cooling cuts operating costs by up to 80% versus refrigerated AC — a full system, fans included. The cooling alone is starker: 25 compressor horsepower to drop 10,000 CFM from 90°F to 67.5°F, versus one-sixth of one horsepower through a MegEvap wet section. About 150× less power — a fan and a small pump, no compressor.

How much cooler is the air coming out?

MegEvap units are rated for temperature drops up to 35°F. The actual drop depends on how hot and how dry the incoming air is — the drier the air, the more water it can absorb and the larger the drop. On an ASHRAE design day in Salt Lake City (94°F dry bulb, 62°F wet bulb), a pre-cooler delivers air around 71°F: a drop of roughly 23°F.

Does evaporative cooling work in humid climates?

Dry climates see the biggest temperature drops, which is why evaporative cooling performs especially well across the Mountain West and Southwest. In more humid climates the temperature drop is smaller, but the ventilation, filtration, and condenser pre-cooling benefits still apply. Tell us your location and we'll say honestly what to expect.

What's the difference between an industrial evaporative cooler and a swamp cooler?

They run on the same physics — evaporating water absorbs heat from the airstream — but “swamp cooler” usually means a small residential unit. Industrial evaporative coolers are built to a different standard: 100% stainless steel wet sections, 12″ rigid media instead of thin pads, high-efficiency industrial fans and blowers, and airflow measured in thousands of CFM. MegEvap portables range from 6,000 to 20,000 CFM.

How much maintenance does an evaporative cooler need?

There are no compressors and no refrigerant, so there's no CFC risk and far less to service than a refrigeration system. The rigid media is self-cleaning: its water flow continuously flushes trapped dust and contaminants down to the sump. MegEvap wet sections are 100% stainless steel with easy water-system access, so routine service is straightforward and units run for decades.

Can evaporative cooling be added to a ventilation system I already own?

Yes — and that's where the biggest energy wins live. Installing a retro-fit wet section on the fresh-air intake of your existing air handling or ventilation system lets you use the fans you already have, at up to 80% lower operating cost than conditioning that same air with refrigeration. Condenser pre-coolers install as retro-fits too, in front of existing air-cooled condensers.

Does evaporative cooling actually clean the air?

Yes. The wet media works like flypaper for dust, smoke, pollen, and spores — contaminants stick to the wet surfaces and get flushed to the sump. Wet media also scrubs water-soluble VOCs and pollutants including CO, CO₂, SO₂, and NOₓ gases. And because the system supplies 100% fresh outside air rather than recirculating it, the air coming out is cleaner than the air going in.

Run the numbers on your facility

Tell us your airflow, climate, and what you're cooling today. We'll show you what an evaporative system would save.

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