Choosing the Best Cooling System for Your Lab: Water or Air
At some point, every lab manager has to make this choice. Your old cooling unit stops working, and you're looking at spec papers trying to decide what to do. Both air cooling and water cooling keep samples cold, but they do it in very different ways. How Labs Use Air Cooling Consider your air conditioner at home. Air-cooled condensing unit systems work in the same way. A fan moves air over coils that are full of refrigerant. The cold air moves about your storage area while the hot air is forced outside. These devices need good air circulation around them. You can't just shove them into tight spaces and expect them to work well. Most labs put them in places where there is at least three feet of space on all sides. The good news? You connect them and they work. There are no water lines to connect. No need to keep pumps running. Most of the time, any HVAC technician can fix something that breaks. How Water Cooling Systems Work Water cooling works differently. Water runs throug...