Indirect Direct Evaporative Cooling (IDEC)

At the heart of HMX Indirect Evaporative Cooling is DAMA, a cross-flow plate type heat exchanger that separates the air into which moisture has been added to create cooling from the air that is supplied to the conditioned space. The end result is supply air that has had no contact with water and is cooled almost to the ambient wet bulb temperature. In Direct Evaporative Cooling, a cellulose pad with a honeycomb structure is used as a heat exchanger. The supply air comes in direct contact with water and the end result is cool air which is laden with moisture.

There is no increase in absolute moisture in the cooled air coming out of DAMA.

Yes. DAMA can be coupled with Direct Evaporative Cooling to achieve extra cooling. It is called HMX-IDEC (Indirect Direct Evaporative Cooling). It offers up to 6-7 °C more cooling compared to conventional/adiabatic coolers/DEC alone.

The power consumption of HMX-IDEC (Indirect Direct Evaporative Cooling) is up to 70% less compared to that of an air-conditioning system.

Yes. HMX systems can supply 100% fresh, filtered, cooled air into your building that is not recirculated, improving Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) of the space, supporting customer and staff well-being by expelling fumes, germs, odours and CO2. This is why DAMA based systems like HMX-IDEC (Indirect Direct Evaporative Cooling) are often specified by HVAC consulting engineers to meet cooling and ventilation requirements of both industrial and commercial buildings.

When we speak about conventional evaporative cooling “the drier the better” is very true. However, during humid days, the cooling performance reduces as the ambient air is already saturated with moisture. In HMX-IDEC (Indirect Direct Evaporative Cooling), though the cooling performance reduces during humid days, the air quality is better as compared to that provided by a Direct Evaporative Cooling system and as compared to the ambient as well, as there is no addition of absolute moisture to the supply air in the first stage (DAMA). There is a temperature reduction compared to the ambient and to a DEC system.

Conventional evaporative coolers tend to deliver less cooling as ambient temperatures rise, and eventually end up failing altogether in extreme temperatures. DAMA’s performance improves as the dry bulb temperature increases. No matter how hot it gets outside, HMX-IDEC (Indirect Direct Evaporative Cooling) uses the same amount of power and still delivers fresh, cool air inside.