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An evaporative cooler produces effective cooling by combining a natural process – water evaporation – with a simple, reliable air-moving system. Fresh outside air is pulled through moist pads where it is cooled by evaporation and circulated through a house or building by a large blower. As this happens, the indoor temperature can be dropped significantly.
The process of evaporation happens all the time. Our bodies, for example, perspre in hot weather; through evaporation the sweat dries and drops our body temperature.
Whenever dry air passes over water, some of the water will absorbed by the air, the more water that can be absorbed. This happens because the temperature and the vapor pressure of the water and the air attempt to equalize. Liquid water molecules become gas in the dry air, a process that uses energy to change the physical state. Heat moves from the higher temperature of the air to the lower temperature of the water. As a result, the air is cooler. Eventually the air becomes saturated,, unable to hold more water, and evaporation ceases.
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