Hybrid heat exchanger apparatus and method of operating the same

A hybrid heat exchanger apparatus, comprising:

• a container having a top wall, a bottom wall and a plurality of side walls connected to the top and bottom wall to form a generally box-shaped chamber, the chamber having a water basin chamber portion defined, in part, by the bottom wall for containing evaporative cooling water, an exit chamber portion defined, in part, by the top wall and a central chamber portion defined, in part, between opposing ones of the side walls and positioned between the water basin chamber portion and the exit chamber portion, the top wall being formed with an air outlet in communication with the exit chamber portion, at least one side wall formed with an air inlet in communication with the central chamber portion;
• a heat exchanger device disposed in and extending across the central chamber portion adjacent to and below the exit chamber portion and operative to convey hot fluid therethrough from a hot fluid source;
• a cooling water distribution system including at least one water distribution manifold extending across the central chamber portion and disposed above and adjacent to the heat exchanger device and at least one pump operative for pumping the evaporative cooling water from the water basin chamber portion to and through the water distribution manifold thereby distributing the evaporative cooling water onto the heat exchanger device;
• an air flow mechanism operative for causing ambient air to flow through the hybrid heat exchanger apparatus from the air inlet, across the heat exchanger device and the water distribution manifold and through the air outlet;
• and
• a controller operative for causing the hybrid heat exchanger apparatus to operate in one of a wet mode, a dry mode and a hybrid wet/dry mode,
• wherein, in the wet mode, both the air flow mechanism and the cooling water distribution system are energized resulting in the ambient air flowing across the heat exchanger device and the evaporative cooling water being distributed onto and across the heat exchanger device to generate hot humid air that subsequently exits through the air outlet,
• in the dry mode, only the air flow mechanism is energized while the cooling water distribution system is de-energized resulting in the ambient air flowing across the heat exchanger device without the evaporative cooling water being distributed onto and across the heat exchanger device to generate hot dry air that subsequently exits through the air outlet, and
• in the hybrid wet/dry mode, both the air flow mechanism and the cooling water distribution system are energized such that the cooling water distribution system distributes evaporative cooling water across and onto the heat exchanger device in a manner to wet only a portion of the heat exchanger device while a remaining portion of the heat exchanger device is dry and simultaneously the air flow mechanism causes the ambient air to flow across the heat exchanger device to generate hot humid air from the ambient air flowing across the wet portion of the heat exchanger device and hot dry air from the ambient air flowing across the remaining dry portion of the heat exchanger device.