Latent Cooling

The process of condensing water out of air, then evaporating the water later. Energy is given up by the water during condensation. If the water is then later evaporated (such as from a drip tray), the amount of energy used to evaporate the water is the same as the amount of energy given up by the water vapor to the cooling equipment when it was condensed. Cooling is occurring later in time, hence the name “latent cooling”. In a system where condensed water is pumped or drained away, the cooling that may occur from evaporation does not cool the environment where the condensation took place so the cooling capacity spent condensing the water vapor is wasted energy.