Why are water coolers more popular in the summer?

As the temperature climbs in summer, the challenge of high-temperature environment for industrial equipment heat dissipation and indoor cooling increases significantly. Water coolers have become the preferred choice for cooling in various industries in summer due to their efficient heat exchange capacity, stable cooling performance and flexible scene adaptability. The following three dimensions of technical principles, environmental adaptability and practical application scenarios, to analyse the core reasons for its hot summer sales. 

First, the natural advantages of water-cooled machine cooling principle

Water cooler through the water circulation system to achieve heat transfer, the core principle is the use of water's high specific heat capacity (4.2kJ / (kg・ ℃), is more than 4 times the air), in the flow process to absorb the heat in the equipment or space, and then through the condenser will release the heat to the outside world. This process has two exclusive summer advantages over traditional air cooling (which relies on air convection to dissipate heat).

High-temperature environment more stable cooling efficiency: summer air temperature often reaches more than 30 ℃, air-cooled equipment cooling fan is easy due to the ambient temperature close to its own operating temperature and efficiency decline, or even ‘heat saturation’ phenomenon. The circulating water of the water cooler can be maintained at a lower temperature (usually 5-10℃ lower than the ambient temperature) through the cooling tower or external water source (e.g., groundwater), ensuring that the cooling efficiency does not decay significantly with the rise of external air temperature. 

Low noise operation characteristics: the main noise source of water cooler is water pump (usually 60-75dB), compared with air-cooled equipment, high-power fan (80-100dB) is quieter, especially for hospitals, laboratories and other noise-sensitive summer cooling scenarios. 

Second, the analysis of the suitability of high-temperature summer scenes

1. industrial equipment cooling summer is the peak of manufacturing production, but high temperatures easily lead to machine tools, injection moulding machines, laser equipment and other industrial equipment due to overheating downtime. The precise temperature control ability of water cooler becomes the key.

Cooling of CNC machine tools: the temperature of spindle motor and guideway can rise to more than 50℃ during continuous operation in summer, the water cooler cools down the temperature by circulating water at a constant temperature of 20-25℃, which ensures that the machining accuracy error is less than 0.01mm, and avoids scrapping of parts caused by thermal expansion. 

Data centre cooling: The server room load surges in summer, and the traditional air-conditioning air-cooling system has high energy consumption and uneven cooling. Water cooler with cold plate liquid cooling technology can control the chip surface temperature within 35℃, which is 40% more efficient than air-cooling and reduces the PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) by 30%. 

2. Commercial and civil scenarios upgrade

Catering kitchen cooling: summer kitchen cooker heat source concentration, the ambient temperature often exceeds 40 ℃, the water cooler through the pipeline will be transported to the operating table, steamer and other heat sources near the local cooling can be up to 10-15 ℃, to improve the chef's working environment. 

Greenhouse temperature control: summer flower planting needs to maintain a constant temperature of 25-30 ℃, water cooler with a wet curtain system, can be in 30 minutes from 38 ℃ in the shed temperature down to the ideal zone, to avoid high temperatures caused by the flowers wilting or reduced production. 

3. High-temperature protection in special industries In metallurgy, chemical industry, welding and other high-temperature operation scenarios, the water cooler can provide circulating cold water cooling for workers' helmets and protective suits through customised piping design to reduce the body temperature from over 50℃ to about 32℃, effectively preventing the risk of heat stroke and meeting the occupational health and safety standards in summer. 

Advantages of energy efficiency ratio and operation cost in summer

The energy efficiency ratio (COP value) of the water cooler is better in the summer high temperature environment: when the outdoor temperature is 35℃, the COP value of the water cooler can reach 3.5-4.0, while the COP value of the air-cooled air-conditioner is usually 2.8-3.2. Taking the 100kW refrigeration demand as an example, if it is running for 10 hours in the summer, the water cooler can save about 20-30 kWh of electricity compared with the air-cooled equipment, and the long-term use of the water cooler can significantly reduce the summer electricity expenditure of the enterprise. In addition, the water-cooled system supports the use of night-time low temperature In addition, the water-cooled system supports the use of night-time low-trough tariffs for ice storage and cooling (ice storage technology), and the release of cold during the day to further optimise the cost of electricity.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)