I Mechanism of action of cooling from fans with misters

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Adding misters to a fan can enhance cooling through the evaporation of water, which cools the air directly. While the amount of water deposited on the skin from mist may seem minimal, it functions similarly to sweat, providing a cooling effect as it evaporates. The principle of achieving 100% relative humidity at the dew point temperature is akin to swamp coolers, but practical comfort levels can vary significantly. It's important to note that while cooling the air improves comfort, increased humidity can reduce it, making this method most effective in dry conditions. Indirect evaporative coolers can also be used to avoid saturating the air while still benefiting from evaporative cooling.
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II'm trying to figure how adding misters to a fan, sprayed or nebulized water into the stream of air, yields increased cooling. Is it due to a non evaporative mechanism, perhaps better heat transport away from the person through humidified air versus dry air?
It seems to me that the minimal to know evaporation of the water at normal ambient temperatures would not be enough to cool the air directly. I'm also guessing that the amount of water deposited on the skin of a person in the mist is not enough
 
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If the mist is injected perfectly one should be able to lower the temperature of the airstream to produce 100% rel humidity air at the dew point temperature. This is the principle of the "swamp cooler " In practice the comfort level thereby produced varies greatly I believe....I have never used one.
 
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jsurow said:
It seems to me that the minimal to know evaporation of the water at normal ambient temperatures would not be enough to cool the air directly.
Evaporation of water into the air does, in fact, cool the air directly.
jsurow said:
I'm also guessing that the amount of water deposited on the skin of a person in the mist is not enough
Mist deposited on the skin will work exactly like sweat and cool the person as it evaporates.
hutchphd said:
If the mist is injected perfectly one should be able to lower the temperature of the airstream to produce 100% rel humidity air at the dew point temperature. This is the principle of the "swamp cooler " In practice the comfort level thereby produced varies greatly I believe....I have never used one.
General principle yes, but you wouldn't typically want to take it all the way to 100% RH. While cooling the air improves comfort increasing humidity reduces comfort. So it's best to use this type of cooling where you have dry air to begin with and don't end up with saturated air*. Or if you're outside and have no alternative.

[edit]
*Like the desert. They also make indirect evaporative coolers, which spray the water into an airstream that is separated from the room air by a heat exchanger, so the moisture doesn't come with it.
 
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