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Cooling Misters Best Ways to Save and Drought Tips

In a severe drought you may be restricted from using your cooling misters. In a moderate drought, you should consider following these water saving tips:

  • Consider opportunities to conduct your activities indoors where air conditioning is already in use.
  • For commercial applications, divide the misters into groups that can be independently controlled. No sense operating many nozzles where just a few can do the job.
  • Turn off the misters when nobody is present. You may want to consider a timer or sensor device.
  • Use trees and other shade structures to keep outdoor areas naturally cooler.
  • Turn off the misters when winds are whisking the mist and cooled air away before it can reach you.
  • Don’t use misters when outdoor temperatures are moderate.
  • Don’t use misters during periods of high humidity — they don’t work well in those conditions.
  • Don’t use mist systems for aesthetic purposes, such as creating fog-like special effects in outdoor landscapes.

Cooling Misters Water Use

The amount of water used by your cooling misters will depend on a number of factors including the type of nozzle, number of nozzles, and frequency of use. Most residential systems include nozzles that consume between a 0.5 gal and 1.5 gal of water per hour.

Nozzle flow rates may also vary depending on your home’s water pressure. In general, a lower nozzle flow rate and higher water pressure will create better evaporation rates and cooling.

To get an idea of how much water your system will use in a day, just multiply the nozzle flow rate by the number of nozzles by the number of hours you operate the misters. For example, if you have 5 nozzles that each operates at 0.5 gal/hr for 4 hours each day, your water use would be 10 gal/day. See below:

Figure 1: Examples of different mister nozzles.

Figure 2: Misters are used on patios and in parks.

Tim Caldwell

Chad Parks

Friday 16th of August 2019

Is it legal for an apt complex to make you take down misters in your patio? I don't see a logical reason for it.