this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
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Mildly Interesting

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's called evaporative cooling and it's quite potent since water takes enormous amounts of energy when changing states. It takes around 5x the energy to convert 100°C water into 100°C vapor than it takes to increase temperature of said water from 0 to 100°. This energy has to be taken from somewhere and that is from the environment, dropping the temperature as a result. Problem with these is that the humidity of the air increases. Not much of a problem in desert, quite a bit problem in other places.

Here's a great video explaining science behind evaporative coolers and how it can be modernized. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_g4nT4a28U

Just wind tunnels without water, I agree with you.