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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Squared" data-source="post: 9396146" data-attributes="member: 7042756">Evaporative coolers do not work on the principle of direct heat exchange, but by using the heat in the air to evaporate water.  This lowers the temperature in the air but raises the humidity, largely keeping the air at the same relative energy level.  The wet-bulb temperature does not change in this process.  Depending on the water temperature the resulting air temperature may be a little different from this due to conduction.  If the air is passing by ice directly then it will also be causing a phase change of the ice, more heat from the air.  This is why blowing air across ice can be so effective.The problem with evaporative coolers, past the simple small fan and ice block solution, is that they raise the humidity in a space quickly.  Because of this you would need to open up your house to the outside air, it is nice to be in the path of this air but if you are using a simple portable one like I am other parts of your house are going to be nearer to outside temperature.The benefit of them is that they are incredibly energy efficient.  This is why they are used as the go to solution for industry and datacenters.  Most datacenters use evaporative cooling directly because it is so efficient, that is a lot of heat getting carried away.  The same principle applies to cooling towers, most large office buildings use them for cooling their chillers, as do many industries and power plants, the iconic towers people identify nuclear power plant with are cooling towers.To put it into numbers, referencing Evapco, the smallest cooling tower they have provides 113 cooling tons (a unit of cooling) with a 5 HP motor.  You would also need to pump the water, needing another HP or so.  Converting to watts that would be a 6HP = 4.5 kW and 113ton = 397 kW for a ratio of 0.011.  Which is more than your ratio of 0.006.  So maybe if you use a 100W fan you can get your 8,000W of cooling.*I use a portable evaporative cooler for my house because I live in Oregon and there are only a few days a year where it gets so warm that I would need AC.  I don't need it 72 degF every day of the year.***I am an HVAC controls engineer, it is literally my job to be pedantic about this sort of thing.**I could probably have more sympathy than I do for office workers complaining about the temperature being above 74 degF, but I don't.^2</blockquote>

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