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island911 island911 is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: an island, upper left coast, USA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh R View Post
. So less moisture from cooled air = less icing. ...
That part isn't quite right. (tho it may seem intuitive)

When air has more moisture it carries more heat-energy, and will take more energy to freeze. (Latent heat and all) Think of it this way; let's say there is ice already on the coils ... what will break the ice faster, room-temp super dry air, or room temp garden hose water?

So, with wet air, condensation may build faster but all that moisture imparts a lot of heat to the cold coils. That is, wet air will take longer to freeze than drier air. (...for a given air flow you'll have more mass flow & latent heat with additional water in the mix)
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Last edited by island911; 06-19-2009 at 12:56 AM..
Old 06-19-2009, 12:46 AM
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