If air conditioner efficiency improves when it rains outside, why don't all air conditioners include water sprayers to help cool them?

submitted by magnora7 from self.science

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[–]samwhiskey 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I have worked in the hvac industry in the past and hated it so much that I'm not even going to answer this question.

Well, maybe a little. It's not more efficient. You have an undersized system, dirty system, too small of a liquid line, not charged properly, not enough return air. A properly designed, clean system will do everything it needs to do all the time. The rain lowers the head pressure and changes the evaporation and condensation temperatures of the refrigerant and can actually make it cool less that it should. Proper evaporation of the refrigerant in the evap coil is necessary to pick up the excess heat from the return air flowing across the coils. Mess with that system and you have less heat being picked up by the refrigerant in the gas state.

Damn, drug me into this...

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The rain lowers the head pressure and changes the evaporation and condensation temperatures of the refrigerant and can actually make it cool less that it should.

Oh, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for that information. Amazing how complicated this stuff is...