I'm thinking of installing a 1000 PSI misting system in the outdoor kitchen to battle the heat. I know the dryer the climate the better these things work due to evaporative cooling. I'm in the BCS area where we typically sit in the 50-60% relative humidity range. Has anybody in the area installed one of these types of systems? Do they work in this climate?

I did. Rio Grande Valley, 25 miles from the coast. So it's humid like you - but we do have a sea breeze you don't, take that into account.

I installed an amusement park quality misting system in the barn where the kids raised they show cattle. The barn was open to the south east where the prevailing wind came in and we spaced misters in a line effectively creating a curtain that came in on the breeze. The system used the smallest tips available at the time ( 0.020") and it worked effectively to keep the temps in the barn reasonable.

Hose end type misters are a disaster in our environment. Swimming pool in minutes. The system that I purchased never caused things to get wet as long as the tips weren't allowed to drip. We did turn it off when it wasn't needed - wet weather, cooler days, and absolutely at night. I left it on accidentally one night and never made that mistake again. Even though I never really saw the galvanized panels getting wet - after years of use they did rust out and did get chalky mineral deposits from a very fine mist evaporating on them. Over 10 years.

IIrC the company I bought from was AeroMist somewhere in AZ.

How do you keep the tips from getting clogged?

I bought a garden hose system with about 6 tips for $20. Set it up at Scout Camp. By the end of the week, only 2 tips were misting. The rest were all clogged. Just threw the damn thing away.

The professional misting systems come with adequate filtering. I'll try to find a link. But it was serious business - because those tips were $8 each and so fine that it was nigh impossible to unclog one after 1000# of pressure drove whatever home in that orifice. I'd fire the system up each summer. Once I got the kinks worked out - they would seldom if ever plug.

https://aeromist.com/product/high-pressure-filters/

ETA I'm not sure you could even push water through that at hose end pressure

I know nothing about them other than in the right climate they work like magic. Not sure if the eastern half of Texas is the right climate. Here in Arizona they work like a charm and people eat outside on patios with misters all summer long. No suggestions other than I would talk to a professional in this business and maybe find out what type are used here. I was on a patio yesterday afternoon when it was 103 and it was perfectly comfortable.

Thanks for the comments...The guy I'm looking to buy from has been great, he just hasn't been able to guarantee a significant temperature drop because he doesn't know our climate. I'm getting 60 nozzles of the .006" and 15 nozzles of the .004". He thinks that will for sure keep everything dry. I think I'm going to give it a shot, if it doesn't work, I can install it into the chicken coop and increase the price of my eggs to $20/dozen.

My only suggestion would be to use nothing but the smallest available tip. You might have to have more of them to meet the pump's minimum flow requirements - but it's your best chance to avoid swamp a**.

The larger tips work better where evaporative cooling is more effective like the previous poster. You and I, however, are in a very narrow window of effectiveness. The finer your mist the more likely it will evaporate before it hits a solid surface. Because once it hits a surface - the you have wetting. Just my experience.

ETA. I was wrong on the tip size. They were single digit thousandths like you mentioned. Whatever Humid Climate called for - the smallest of those. It's been a while.

Thanks Center...You are correct, with the pump I'm getting I need the .006" tips to get enough volume to keep the pump happy. The plan is to have the .006" tips around the outside of the structure, and the .004" tips on the interior with a shutoff valve if needed, he warned me about spacing them too close together or the misters would combine and create bigger droplets.

Heck, they sell systems with a filter for $20. Some of those pumps needed to push water through .006 holes cost thousands of dollars.

I prefer to get a little wet when it gets this dang hot.

https://www.amazon.com/Misting-System-Water-Filter-Greenhouse/dp/B0BZ485HLW/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3JJV2HU76PTHS&keywords=misting+system+with+filter&qid=1687285614&sprefix=misting+system+with+filter%2Caps%2C100&sr=8-3

Trust me, I looked real hard at the low pressure Home Depot versions because of the price tag on the high pressure systems, but all the research I did suggests with the humidity at 50% you might as well just turn the sprinkler system on and play in that.

Bronco6G said:

---

Trust me, I looked real hard at the low pressure Home Depot versions because of the price tag on the high pressure systems, but all the research I did suggests with the humidity at 50% you might as well just turn the sprinkler system on and play in that.

---

True. I did learn something today. Thanks for bringing this project to the board!

Took too long to post. Y'all covered it with those posts.

Bronco6G said:

---

Trust me, I looked real hard at the low pressure Home Depot versions because of the price tag on the high pressure systems, but all the research I did suggests with the humidity at 50% you might as well just turn the sprinkler system on and play in that.

---

Fact.

https://usfanco.com/collections/misting-fans?_kx=QT_cFtVLKowzYpM-tWot36BfGAvl8llrjwgJKWJam_Y%3D.U9ND3Q
High Pressure Misting Fans

Centerpole90 said:

---

Bronco6G said:

---

Trust me, I looked real hard at the low pressure Home Depot versions because of the price tag on the high pressure systems, but all the research I did suggests with the humidity at 50% you might as well just turn the sprinkler system on and play in that.

---

Fact.

---

I bought one of the home depot fans with the low pressure system. After two minutes I was hot and wet. they are worthless in Houston.

and yes, I know what I wrote there.

You can expect 40 to 50% evaporative efficiency out of a misting system. The key is to atomize so the droplets can evaporate, that's why hose end systems don't work.

Swine and poultry use evaporative cooling to great effect. If you can get the water evaporated and keep air moving it will cool your space. Not AC cold, but will be a noticeable difference.

Take BCS for example: 2% design conditions are 96F dry bulb and 76 F wet bulb. 50% efficiency gets you half if that difference, so you'd expect around 85F, all things being equal. Add in some air movement and it could be fairly comfortable.

I think I understand what a dry bulb temperature is (just the temp measured regularly with a thermometer?), but what the hell is a wet bulb temperature? And what is a 2% design condition? And most importantly, is your BCS example real, I can expect around a 10 degree difference? I'm assuming this whole dry bulb/wet bulb thing applies to both shaded areas and sunny areas alike?