For years, commercial property managers have been adopting new technology that reduces their carbon footprint and cuts carbon emissions. As our industry continues to evolve thanks to innovation, there’s a new trend that’s taking our industry by storm: solar-powered evaporative cooling towers.
These state-of-the-art units are not only environmentally friendly, but they can also help cut energy costs, giving an edge to forward-thinking building owners/managers looking for additional means of boosting profits.
How Do Solar-Powered Evaporative Cooling Towers Work?
As the name suggests, solar-powered evaporative cooling towers generate electricity through solar panels that collect the sun’s energy through photovoltaic panels. This process reduces the building’s carbon footprint and lowers energy costs by not running solely on traditional power sources such as fossil fuels or electricity from a power grid. However, if there isn’t sufficient solar energy to run the system, the automated controls will shift to a backup power source to ensure continuous operation and consistent evaporative cooling.
These systems use water and air to cool the interior spaces of a commercial building. They operate by pumping warm water from the building into the tower over pads dampened with cool water. This process triggers evaporation, which helps lower the temperature of the warm water. The cooler water is then sent through the building’s mechanical cooling system to help lower interior temperatures.
Meanwhile, the fans in the towers remove hot latent air from the tower leaving cooler water to be used in the rest of the building equipment. This system provides a constant supply of water proportional to the demand of the building making it more efficient than traditional systems.
These cutting-edge cooling towers offer an efficient, cost-effective option for modern-day commercial property managers seeking practical, sustainable solutions to cool their buildings during the warmer months.
What Are The Three Types Of Solar-Powered Evaporative Cooling Towers?
There are generally three types of cooling towers for commercial properties:
Mechanical draft towers: These cooling towers use fans to draw air through the tower
Natural draft towers: This type of cooling tower uses the buoyancy of rising hot air to pull cooler outside air into the system
Hybrid systems: Hybrid towers combine aspects of both mechanical and natural draft systems to optimize efficiency
Hybrid cooling towers combine aspects of both systems to optimize efficiency. Each type offers distinct advantages that depend on your particular application. A qualified HVAC service provider can help you choose which system would work best for your property based on factors such as local climate conditions, energy availability, and occupancy levels.
What Are The Benefits Of Using a Solar-Powered Evaporative Cooling Towers?
As stated earlier, evaporative cooling towers help reduce your building’s environmental impact while significantly lowering your energy bills by reducing complete reliance on traditional power sources.
However, these cooling towers also offer lower installation costs, better flexibility in design aesthetics, and increased property value over time. The units are also certified to operate efficiently in all Northern American climates, including in areas that experience high winds or seismic activity, bringing peace of mind that you can depend on your solar-powered cooling system during extreme weather events.
Read More: How Technology is Transforming Commercial HVAC Systems
Maintenance Consideration For Evaporative Cooling Towers
Just like with other parts of your HVAC system, solar-powered evaporative cooling towers require regular inspection and maintenance to help them operate at peak efficiency. A qualified HVAC service provider should have the capacity to work with these specialized units and fulfill all the necessary maintenance requirements.
These maintenance tasks include inspecting, cleaning, or replacing the equipment and components within the cooling tower, monitoring water quality, and cleaning the solar panels. Although rainfall will often clean the solar panels of most dirt, grime, and other contaminants, a thorough professional scrubbing will ensure they’re able to do their job on an ongoing basis.
Solar-powered evaporating cooling towers offer commercial property owners a viable alternative to traditional cooling systems, saving them money and helping to protect the environment in the process.
Call Springbank Mechanical Systems Today For An Estimate
Our team is always happy to discuss how Springbank Mechanical Systems makes commercial HVAC maintenance easier with cost-efficient strategies such as solar-powered evaporating cooling towers. Our fully qualified technicians will thoroughly inspect your system, discuss your particular needs, and answer all your questions about making this critical step toward a more sustainable world.
We specialize in maintaining, servicing, and replacing all brands, types, sizes, and configurations of commercial HVAC equipment, including economizers, rooftop units, water-cooled heat pumps, cooling towers, hot water boilers, circulating pumps, steam humidifiers, makeup air units, and much more.
Contact us anytime to discuss how Springbank can help you reduce your energy bills and extend the life of your equipment.
Gregg Little, Paul DeThomasis, and Hugo Lopes are co-owners of Springbank Mechanical Systems. You can reach them at 905-569-8990 or via email at gregg@springbank.com, paul@springbank.com, or hugo@springbank.com.