Pseudo Swamp Cooler

[MacGregor]

I'm buying a house in Edmonton Alberta Canada, where the conditions are typically dry and dusty and hot in the summer. I plan on installing a HRV to control basement humidity and keep the air fresh in the winter. The house doesn't have an airconditioner and if it's dusty, opening the windows would bring in mess with the cooler night air. Running the HRV would heat the incoming air with the energy in the house air at night and maintain the temperature in the house during the day, so that's not a terribly effective option. So here's the question.

If I add an atomizing humidifier to the return line to the HRV (between the house vents and the HRV) to spray water into the house air being exhausted, will there be enough of a temperature drop in the humid exhaust air to get a cooling benefit in the dry incoming air? Do these atomizing humidifier units send enough vapour into the air stream to create a cooling effect or is the amount of water required beyond their capabilities? I've seen a small unit at HomeDepot but can't recall the volume output, the unit I've found on the web is about 6.5L/hour

From what I've read about swamp coolers they cool the air by

evaporation but the humidity in the house increases, I'm more interested in keeping a reasonable humidity level in the house and cooling the house.

Thanks in advance

MacGregor

[SJF]

I can't answer your other questions, but a word of caution about atomizing humidifiers --

Unless you have water with VERY low mineral content, the dissolved solids remain in the outgoing air stream as smoke sized particles after the water evaporates. It then distributes everywhere in the area served and settles on everything -- white, dusty film.

SJF

[Mark]

I agree with SJF. in a real swamp cooler, the minerals will collect on the pads and if you install a bleed kit they will seek an equalibrium and exit with the bleed water. If you just atomize the water with no pad or other medium, the minerals have no where else to go but into the air. A swamp cooler with a bleed kit works great in Arizona.

Mark