Adiabatic coolers storm U.S. market

Over 1,000 have been installed in the U.S., of which around 250 are for CO₂, according to a Güntner executive.

Jerry Lozano, Güntner, talking to a customer at the AHR Expo in Chicago.

Adiabatic coolers are proving a big hit with U.S. customers, said Jerry Lozano, sales and applications engineer for German manufacturer Güntner, at the AHR Expo in Chicago.

“One thousand [from all manufacturers] have been sold so far [in the U.S.], of which 250 are probably CO₂,” Lozano said at the event, held January 22-24. The component supplier, which manufactures adiabatic condensers, estimates that the main source of this growth in CO₂ adiabatic coolers comes from innovative end users like the retailer ALDI US.

Other manufacturers of adiabatic condensers include Baltimore Aircoil and Evapco.

“

One thousand [from all manufacturers] have been sold so far [in the U.S.], of which 250 are probably CO_2."

– Jerry Lozano, Güntner

Lozano said that adiabatic technology is much more efficient than traditional evaporative coolers.

He believes the sales of its CO₂ products will further increase as the move towards CO₂ transcritical and ammonia/CO₂ cascade systems in larger applications picks up in North America.

“Carnot is making inroads with this technology […] and other companies who are traditionally commercial and are now moving into industrial like Zero Zone and Hillphoenix,” he noted.

Ammonia is still being use for the majority of industrial applications. “You can see some resistance from ammonia players” who are pushing low-charge ammonia as a solution instead, Lozano said. But that technology is not really ready for very large applications, he noted.