Conservation of water in operating evaporative coolers
OwnerSidney Z. Kocibinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to operation of residential or commercial evaporative coolers, more specifically, its subject matter is conservation of water needed to cool down ambient air in their operation.
Claims18
In a method of operating manufactured evaporative coolers having heat exchange media wetted with circulating water wherein ambient air is drawn through said wetted heat exchange media to cool the air, said evaporative cooler further including a water basin to supply said circulating water to the heat exchange media, and, wherein said manufactured cooler has a bleed-off value of process water directed by the manufacturer of said evaporative cooler, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) supplying a volume of a raw supply water needed for said evaporative cooler operation, said raw supply water having water hardness scalants contained therein;
- (b) using said supply water for circulating within, and for continuous wetting of said heat exchange media of said evaporative cooler;
- and
- (c) discharging a volume of the circulating water as bleed-off from said evaporative cooler in accordance with the manufacturer's directions in order to reduce the concentration of scalants in the circulating water, and replenishing said discharged bleed-off portion with said raw supply water;
- the improvement comprising operating said evaporative cooler in order to conserve water by
- (d) reducing the volume of that portion of the circulating water bleed-off of step (c), said reduced volume being from about 5 up to 90 percent by volume as calculated from said manufacturer's directions, thereby increasing the concentration of scalants in the circulating water, and, at the same time;
- (e) adding an anti-scale effective volume of anti-scale chemicals to the circulating water;
- whereby said anti-scale chemicals intervene with the harmful activity of said increased concentration of said raw supply water scalants, wherein said chemicals are introduced to said evaporative cooler in a liquid form in a metered fashion, using pressure of raw supply water flow downstream from a float valve responsive to a float located in said water basin, said raw supply water being at least partially diverted to a container with a supply of said chemicals to introduce a desired amount of said chemicals into said circulating water in said water basin in such an arrangement that a check valve on a raw supply water line downstream from said float valve but upstream of said container prevents a back flow from said container with said chemicals.
In a method of operating manufactured evaporative coolers having heat exchange media wetted with circulating water wherein ambient air is drawn through said wetted heat exchange media to cool the air, said evaporative cooler further including a water basin to supply said circulating water to the heat exchange media, said evaporative coolers having also bleed-off means for discharging portion of mixture of circulating water and water hardness minerals contained therein from said evaporative cooler, said method comprising the steps of:
- a) filling said water basin with a volume of said raw supply water, said raw supply water having content of hard water minerals contained therein
- b) using said raw :supply water for circulating within said evaporative coolers and for continuous wetting of said heat exchange media of said evaporative coolers, and
- c) discharging a volume of said circulating water as bleed-off from said evaporative coolers, and replenishing said bleed-off portion with another portion of said raw supply water;
- the improvement comprising operating said evaporative coolers in order to conserve water by
- d) continuously providing a full volume of said raw supply water of step (a) and fully closing said bleed-off of said evaporative coolers or otherwise not discharging that portion of said circulating water as bleed-off from said evaporative coolers,
- e) adding chemical means into said circulating water, wherein said chemical means are introduced to said evaporative cooler in a liquid form in a metered fashion, using pressure of raw supply water flow downstream from a float valve responsive to a float located in said water basin, said raw supply water being at least partially diverted to a container with a supply of said chemical means to introduce a desired amount of said chemical means into said circulating water in said water basin in such an arrangement that a check valve on a raw supply water line downstream from said float valve but upstream of said container prevents a back flow from said container with said chemical means,
- f) from time to time draining said circulating water completely from said evaporative cooler when the content of said hard water minerals in said circulating water has reached a predetermined level,
- g) rinsing said water basin and said heat exchange media of said evaporative cooler with raw supply water, and
- h) re-filling said evaporative cooler with fresh raw supply water and said chemical means for a next operating cycle.
A method of operating a manufactured evaporative cooler having a heat exchange media wetted with circulating water wherein ambient air is drawn through said wetted heat exchange media to cool the air, said evaporative cooler further including a water basin to supply said circulating water to the heat exchange media, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) charging said water basin of said evaporative cooler with an initial volume of raw process water containing water hardness minerals therein;
- (b) circulating said raw process water over said heat exchange media to cool ambient air drawn through said media;
- (c) evaporating some of the circulating water thereby increasing the concentration of the water hardness minerals in the remaining circulating process water;
- (d) permitting the concentration of water hardness minerals in the circulating process water to increase by adding an additional volume of raw process water containing water hardness minerals therein to the evaporative cooler and by reducing or cancelling bleed-off of the circulating water;
- (e) providing chemical agent(s) for controlling crystallinic deposit of the water hardness minerals, and
- (f) introducing said agent(s) into said circulating water in an amount effective to control deposit of the water hardness minerals in the circulating water, thereby permitting the concentration of minerals in said circulating water to be increased in comparison with the content of said minerals in said raw supply water, wherein said chemical agent(s) are introduced to said evaporative cooler in a liquid form in a metered fashion, using pressure of raw supply water flow downstream from a float valve responsive to a float located in said water basin, said raw supply water being at least partially diverted to a container with a supply of said chemical agent(s) to introduce a desired amount of said chemical agent(s) into said circulating Water in said water basin in such an arrangement that a check valve on a raw supply water line downstream from said float valve but upstream of said container prevents a back flow from said container with said chemical agent(s).
A method of operating an evaporative cooler, said cooler having heat exchange media wetted with circulating cooling water wherein ambient air drawn through said wetted heat exchange media cools the air, said evaporative cooler further including a water basin to supply said circulating water to the heat exchange media, and means for directing said cooled air to a situs to be cooled by said cooled air, and bleed off means to remove and discharge a portion of said circulating cooling water, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing;
- cooling water to said water basin of said evaporative cooler, said cooling water being a mixture of a selected chemical agent(s) and raw supply water containing water hardness materials, wherein said chemical agent(s) are introduced to said evaporative cooler in a liquid form in a metered fashion, using pressure of raw supply water flow downstream from a float valve responsive to a float located in said water basin, said raw supply water being at least partially diverted to a container with a supply of said chemical agent(s) to introduce a desired amount of said chemical agent(s) into said circulating water in said water basin in such an arrangement that a check valve on a raw supply water line downstream from said float valve but upstream of said container prevents a back flow from said container with said chemical agent(s);
- (b) continuously recirculating said cooling water in direct contact with said heat exchange media and drawing ambient air through said heat exchange media to cool said air;
- (c) directing said cooled air to a situs to be cooled by said cooled air;
- (d) increasing the minerals content of the circulating water to the quantity wherein minerals in said circulating water will precipitate by diminishing the bleed-off of said circulating water;
- and
- (e) delaying the precipitation of said minerals in said circulating water of step (d) by selecting said chemical agent(s) and mixing them with said raw supply water in an amount effective to suspend said minerals in said cooling water,
- whereby the volume of raw supply water necessary to cool a given volume of air is reduced thereby improving the economy in using natural water resources.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.