Evaporative cooling

Evaporative cooling is the lowering of a surface’s or environment’s temperature when a liquid evaporates and absorbs latent heat from its surroundings.

Latent heat of vaporization: The energy required to change a unit mass of liquid into vapor without changing its temperature. Evaporation draws this energy from nearby surfaces and air.
Swamp cooler: An air conditioner that cools incoming air by evaporating water into it. It uses direct evaporation to cool and humidify a room.
Evaporation: The change of a liquid into vapor at its surface, below or at its boiling point. It is the phase change that produces evaporative cooling.
Vapor-compression refrigeration: A refrigeration cycle that uses a compressor and refrigerant to move heat from a colder space to a warmer one. Unlike simple evaporative coolers, it can cool below the outdoor wet-bulb temperature.
Vapor pressure: The pressure exerted by vapor in equilibrium with its condensed phase at a given temperature. It helps determine how readily liquid molecules escape into the air.
Cooling tower: A structure that removes heat from water mainly by exposing it to moving air. Evaporation carries heat away from water in many industrial systems.
Phase transition: A transformation between distinct physical states of matter. Evaporative cooling relies on a liquid-to-gas phase transition.
Desiccant cooling: An air-conditioning method that uses a drying material to remove moisture from air. Reducing humidity can improve the performance of downstream evaporative cooling.
Relative humidity: The ratio of water vapor present in air to the maximum amount it can hold at the same temperature. High humidity slows evaporation and weakens the cooling.
Perspiration: The secretion of sweat onto the skin, where its evaporation can help regulate body temperature. Sweat evaporation is a major cooling process in humans.

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