• Browse More Videos
• Blog
• Featured
• Press
• Uncategorized
• Video
• What's New

It’s as much a part of the aural landscape of a hot summer as cicadas, kids frolicking at swimming pools and the occasional rustle of a warm wind through trees – namely, the labored hum of an air conditioning unit as it tries to keep up with soaring temperatures.

But water keeps those kids cool; why can’t it do the same for your A/C unit? That’s the question posed by Mist Ecology, a Richardson, Texas-based company. Its signature product, the AC Spritzer, brings the traditional concept of evaporative cooling into the 21st century with some modern tweaks that promise to extend an air conditioner’s life, save on A/C costs, improve the cooling capacity of those units and reduce carbon emissions outside homes and businesses.

The AC Spritzer is a misting product composed of a filter and water jets that wrap around a standard air conditioning unit, spraying the exterior with a fine cool mist.  The micro-climate created by the Spritzer lowers the air temperature surrounding the air conditioner. “That cooler air is going into your unit, causing your unit to be more efficient – about 20-30 percent more efficient – saving you on your electricity and supplying cooler air to your home,” says Mist Ecology corporate secretary/account manager Shelley Baker. “If you have an upstairs room or a west-side room that just never stays cool, an AC Spritzer can help your unit supply cooler air to those rooms. We’ve actually had customers who have told us they now sit on their couch with a blanket, covered up.”

Mist Ecology president Roger Burns says his company has found the solutions to two problems that have plagued evaporative cooling concepts: water rusting out A/C coils and soaring water bills. A special company-designed filter keeps minerals, tree seeds and grasses off the internal machinery of a unit. The patent-pending filter also lends special value to companies like restaurants that are looking to save on air conditioning costs.

“Our commercial application also solves several other problems,” Burns says. “In restaurants you have particularly dirty and greasy environments. The grease exhaust from the grill typically flows up and straight into the coils of your commercial unit. Our filters catch that grease on the outside. They also create a chamber so that the cool air has a better effect before entering your rooftop unit, making that process more efficient in that regard. We also solve problems with data centers because they typically have too little cooling capacity, so our UltraMister is a perfect product for data centers, restaurants and commercial buildings.”

A special electronic controller also makes sure to turn on the Spritzer’s misters at the right times. “You might think that it uses a lot of water but it’s only about 560 gallons a week, which is about equivalent to another person living in your home full-time,” Baker said. “And the savings in monthly electric bills by making an air conditioner more efficient far outweighs any extra water that’s used,” she added.

The lowering of carbon emissions from homes, businesses and power plants has earned Mist Ecology approval from Pacific Gas and Electric for special green technology incentives and rebates, Burns said.

The AC Spritzer represent a new way of forming practical products – and start-up businesses – from engineering ideas. Mist Ecology’s parent company is Halff Associates, a team of more than 400 engineers who get the opportunity to run with ideas if they can be applied to real-world solutions. “We thought it was a good opportunity to take advantage of some of those ideas. Tim Jensen came up with this idea and that spurred us to create an organization, a subsidiary, Halff Research and Development, that would help incubate other good ideas,” said Burns, who also serves as Halff’s chief financial officer.

Jensen’s idea blossomed after going for a long run during a Texas summer. He used a garden hose to cool off, and some of the water landed on his air conditioner. That water may have cooled off the A/C unit, but it also sparked in Jensen’s mind a product and a business model, and Mist Ecology’s executives are confident both will end up scorching successes.

For more information about Mist Ecology, the AC Spritzer and the UltraMister, go to www.mistecology.com.