Evaporation factor

Definition

The fraction of tower heat transfer accomplished by evaporation (latent heat) rather than sensible warming of the air, commonly about 0.85.

A value of 0.85 means 85 percent of heat rejection is latent and 15 percent is sensible, and it enters the recirculation-and-range evaporation estimate. It is relatively stable for mechanical-draft towers in typical comfort cooling but can shift in extreme humidity or with high-efficiency fill. Including it reconciles the heat-load and recirculation methods, since dividing the second result by f recovers the first.

Related concepts

Sensible heat transfer · Latent Heat of Vaporization · Cooling tower evaporation

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Part of The Blueprint of Water · 📏 measurement