Mistbox Air Conditioner Cooler

Installation was simple but whole setup has design issues or we can say poor plumbing. There is no notice or instruction that it says that you have tighten up the water filter that it comes as already screwed on to the device, that ended up a big leakage once everything was hooked up. I screwed the filter, sure thing its all made out of plastic so there was still leak and i decided to seal up the connection of the water filter to device with teflon tape and a rubber washer. After sealing the filter, no leak appeared.Couple things that if you don't open the tap to provide enough pressure, your system will end up draining all the water coming in so you have to have a good pressure then all the tube connections will latch and start misting instead of draining all the water.You will most likely have a swamp or a nice pool of water around the AC unit for sure in the hot weather, especially if you dont have a french drain good luck with that. moss mold will start growing and mushroom in your lawn.If your AC unit is close to the wall, your wall will be soaked into water, mold will start for sure plus depending on the construction type of your building or age, water has a chance to slip thru the wall cracks or gaps.Make sure you have no gap in between the device and the AC unit, otherwise the magnetic field sensor (which is the relay in the device makes it run when your AC runs) will not initiate and will not mist.Mobile application is designed good visually but it's totally useless. You have to wait long time (possibly a month) to see the savings, you cannot make changes on device settings except the trigger temperature setting and water saving mode. Even when you do these, you need to wait 7 hours for the update/communication in between the device and the phone. App updates the charts every 7 to 8 hours, app or maybe the device itself does not recognize or does not record every time AC and misting works. I am looking at the recordings in the app, it shows ac didnt run at all all night, thats not true at all. Number of AC unit running time doesn't match at all. I did not wait a month or over 10 days to get application savings chart. I setup my own on a paper by following the power meter, water meter and as well as matching with the energy company smart meter readings hourly basis on my account.%30 savings are most likely dream, I tested and run this device on 10 seer 19 years old but well maintained still working like a first day AC unit which hooked up to 2016 high efficiency furnace/blower... Saving i acquired was 5 dollar a week! Which would make 20 a month off the 200 dollar monthly bill so that is basically %10 not %30. Well, if you have 16-18seer system you might get %30 but i wouldn't need this on 18 seer ac unit for sure.Many issues and limitations on mobile app.Device settings are manageable by pushing multi button configurations for certain amount of time, which is okay but not very user friendly for elder people or non techy people.(thankfully I am an engineer)It seems like products QA is not efficient, when water source is off, there is no indication going in my app that it says mistbox is not working because no water source, this is a big time design flaw. And it still shows that mistbox is misting, pretty poor and terrible!When water pressure is low, drainage starts wasting more water then ever (when you take a shower or laundry machine hauls some water in), no indication on the mobile app or on the device.To see everything you rely on app, so app fails then your whole savings turns into wasting...For commercial use, they have way different setup than this and we don't use thousands of dollars power so in that case this may not be the solution for home users really. I would definitely try to invest in SOLAR POWERED AC UNITS... That will get itself sold pretty good.Another thing, when you hit 100F+ temps, your water coming from the faucet is warm pretty much, when misting it gets more warmer, so that way instead of cooling the coils with the mist you may even get in the position where you heating the coils more. Coils are not on a temperature where you cannot touch, they are just warm. in this case, you may have to have a cold water source to make this system more efficient.Final words, I really like the idea but the description and specifications with promises does not match with the real world results. In my believe it can be improved and may work much efficient but Who ever is done the QA, for sure has no background its position... I do believe in Science and Hard work but not the product with no QA perform on it.

I received this product under the Amazon Vine program…we receive free product in return for unbiased reviews. Spending 30 years in the energy engineering field, I felt this product was in my wheelhouse of expertise. I have a lot of experience in the design, build and operation of evaporative cooling systems.For those who don't like long technical reviews... WARNING, stop here ;)Some products and applications are complex, and this is surely one of them. There is so many variables that determine if this product is a good fit for you application. So, it was hard to keep it short...then, others would contribute and ask questions, which lengthened the review...I normally review the product, which I will below…since there was already a great review / thread going on this subject under D.R. Lee review, I will address many of the issues raised in that review and the comments below his review. There is a lot of very good information in the comment section of that review, as well as some mis information. I will do my best to clarify some of this information while being fair to both the maker and potential buyers.First, the product itself. I will not complain about the price point for the simple reason, this is an admitted start-up, As another reviewer mentioned, it costs a fortune to start up a company and bring a product to market. Like all new products, they start out expensive, and over time, they often drop in price…however, this is not a high volume product, so don’t expect huge price drops. Since it is a new product, I can not ding a point on price… sure there is cheaper ways to make similar devices, but not everyone has the skills or the inclination to do such. A purchase decision on a product like this usually hinges on Cost vs. Savings, vs. just cost. In many cases, the benefits are so significant, the cost is a minor issue....but, not always (more on this below)What this maker has done is quite novel IMO….they added a solar powered microprocessor, controlled by an app. Taking advantage of everyone’s house having wifi and the power of the smart phone / tablet. Is this mandatory? Not really…BUT, without this approach u must provide a means to know the outside air temp (to know when to to engage the water solenoid valve), an intermediate relay to know when the AC is on, and a water solenoid valve. Bring power to the AC unit, put all this in a water tight box, provide plumbing fittings, and u have a nice 10 – 20 hour project on your hands trying to gather all these components and making the system work, and this assumes u are knowledgeable and mechanical. Since I have designed many complex control systems in my life, I could easily accomplish this. However, I would never waste my time tracking down all the components for one or two AC units… vs. buying something off the shelf like Mistbox.The app is clever…but its also in its early stages, so I don’t want to waste time reviewing this, as all apps improve each month,. These reviews are on Amazon forever, any software comments would prob. be no longer applicable in a short period of time. IMO, software reviews become dated so quickly, they confuse people reading the review 6 months later. It seems the discussion about this product was leaning far away from the app component, and more towards the where risks and what applications would benefit the most. I am not discounting the app, it is part of the success of the product. We all know app / wifi issues are resolvable.The misters work fine, the water does not leak…. No issues. Simple to install. However many have pointed out in the D.R. Lee post, misters have been around for a long time, so this part is not new, so I won’t comment on the misters. However further down I will comment on the risks of misting water on to condenser coils.The premise of evaporative cooling has been around for hundreds of years. The actual refrigeration cycle in an air conditioner provides cooling as a result of the same physics, i.e. the tremendous amount of energy stored in latent energy vs. sensible energy. Latent energy is the energy required for matter to change states, such as 32 deg F ice, to 32 deg F water. For this to occur, it takes 144 BTU’s of energy per lb of water, whereas during this change of state, there was NO gain or loss in sensible (measurable) energy. Sensible energy is what we are familiar with, and measure, such as air temp. Total energy is a combination of sensible temperature and water vapor…. And this is where it gets a bit complex for the layperson. If anyone wants to study up on this and see the relationships, u must become intimately familiar with a psychometric chart.Now, to demonstrate the power of latent energy….While it takes 144 BTU/lb to convert 32 deg F ice to 32 deg F water (change of state only), it takes 965 BTU/lb to evaporate water to its gaseous state. It’s this water > vapor “change of state” that provides the DIRECT evaporative cooling effect. The 965 BTU’s must come from somewhere… and in this case, it actually takes the energy (heat) from the air in which the water evaporated into. (there is also a form of evaporative cooling called INDIRECT, which should not be confused here) This is how evaporative cooling provides a significant drop in air temp. The amount of temp drop varies based on the temp and RH of the air, and this is where understanding how to read a pyschometic chart comes into play…but its not required to understand the application of this product. In general, u can get up to a 30 deg of air temp drop with direct evaporative cooling in ideal applications... maybe 10-15 degrees in less desirable applications.Water happens to be a truly amazing substance…it is readily abundant, dirt cheap and has a tremendous amount of latent energy. To leverage this latent energy, some large commercial AC system make ice at night, in mega sized underground water tanks and then convert the ice back to water during the day when AC is required. It’s called thermal storage. Similar to electrical storage, which is known as a battery. Water is similar to a battery, as it holds a lot of potential latent energy.The mister sprays water in the incoming air to the condensing coils, which are warm (inside the condenser coils, the refrigerant is holding the heat which was drawn from inside the house.... which is released outdoors) The air crossing the coils after being misted (and some water lands on the coils as well) is cooler in temp vs. non misted air, as the evaporation process pulls sensible heat from the air in which the air evaporates into. So how does this lower temp incoming air stream reduce AC energy consumption?An AC system is also a system that leverages the premise of latent energy in the form of refrigerant. However, it does this through a closed system, i.e. refrigerant is recirculated, unlike evaporative cooling where u need a constant supply of refrigerant (water). Explaining the refrigerant cycle is beyond the scope of this review…and its not mandatory to understand to grasp the benefits of the MisterBox. AC units do not operate like electric motors which have a near consistent efficiency curve under most loads. AC units efficiency curves vary greatly based on many changing variables. But, the single biggest variable to AC efficiency is outside air temp! The lower the outside air temp, the more efficient the AC operates...and its not a small amount... 65 deg vs. 115 deg outside air temp can increase the operating efficiency 300%! It's this unique, and vast efficiency curve of the AC cycle, that evaporative cooling takes advantage of, to achieve system efficiency improvements.AC units efficiency is expressed in cooling capacity / kw. Since a KWH has a fixed amount of BTU's, its a linear conversion. It confuses people when they see an AC rating at 200% efficient. Seems impossible ? It occurs since AC units do NOT generate a thermal effect, like an electric strip heater. Instead, and AC unit simply transfers heat from one location (inside the house) to another location (outside the house). Hence the term "refrigeration cycle." One full round of the cycle is when the refrigerant passes through the evaporator coil (inside the AHU, Air Handling Unit, inside the house) to the condenser coils outside the house. Hopefully this explains how anything can be more than 100% efficient. Larger commercial AC units can run up to 500% efficient.Residential AC units have efficiency ratings. The ratings are based on BTU’s of cooling vs. kwh (electrical energy). Very similar to mpg on a car. A 40 mpg car is 2x as efficient as a 20 mpg car. A SEER rating is a very complex compilation of different variables… but higher SEER’s equal more efficient AC units. BUT what all refrigerant cycles have in common is… their efficiency is dramatically dependent on the outside air temp. As outdoor air temp rises, the efficiency of the unit drops drastically (eff. = BTU’s of cooling per kwk)…up to 2 - 3x based on the type of AC system. This is unfortunate, and counter productive, as when outside air temps rise, this is when AC is needed the most. Hence why many large AC users make ice at night, as they can create the same amount of BTU’s of cooling while saving 50-70% of the electrical energy required to produce the same cooling capacity during the hot day. The savings can be even greater when a utility offers lower night time rate$. TOU, Time Of Use rates will become more commonplace as the value of mid day power is worth 3-5x the value of night time (off peak) electrical generation.So an AC unit is very inefficient when outside temps are high, and very efficient when outside temps are low. Evaporative cooling essentially lowers the outside air temp crossing the condensing coils during those periods when its HOT outside. Therefore, the AC is operating at is least desirable range on its efficiency curve. So a misting system essentially tricks the AC unit into thinking its much cooler outside than it really is. For a condenser unit, the only temp that matters is the temp of the air passing over the coils. It might be 100 deg in PHX, but with the right evap cooling system before the coils, the AC condensing unit is actually experiencing 75 deg air over the condensing coils, which can increase the AC units efficiency by 2 – 3x.Interestingly enough, if you put an ammeter on the AC unit before and after the applying the evaporative cooling to the coils, u will NOT see a reduction in amperage. The gains are measured via the Delta T (temperature differential) of the evaporator coil, i.e. return air temp vs. the supply air temp feeding the house. Lowering the condenser air temp, actually delivers its efficiency improvements through additional cooling capacity. It’s this "Delta T BTU" calculation that provides the net energy gain. As, if you double the cooling capacity, u cut the run time in half. (see below, as even this can be tricky)I mention this, as for those who want to monitor savings, it can be confusing if u are looking for a reduction in electrical energy to the compressor / condenser fan system... often checked with a clamp on ammeter. Like all energy equations, u must look at the system as a whole… as we all know, energy is neither create or destroyed, its simply converted from one form to another. So don’t fool yourself checking electrical readings. There is a pretty straight forward calculation for measuring energy gains… which involves knowing the CFM (Cubic Feet / Minute) of air flow combined with the Delta T across the evap coil and wet bulb. This will yield the tonnage of cooling... one ton of cooling is 12k BTU's. (beyond the scope of this review)So does Misterbox work? In the right operating environment, of course it works…. The question is, how much efficiency improvement will it provide, and “is it worth it”, and “what are the risks”. All VERY valid questions that MATTER!First, the premise of evaporative cooling relies on water to evaporate into the surrounding air… the rate at which water will evaporate into the air ….depends on the temp and humidity of the air. Without over-complicating this issue… if you are in a dry and HOT area, water evaporates at a very fast rate. Anyone living in hot arid areas, knows this from experience, specially after a short rain! OTOH, if you live in a very high humidity area, such as FL, water does NOT easily evaporate into the surrounding air....as the air is already highly saturated with water vapor. This is why pure evaporative coolers (once used for houses and now mostly for garages) are mostly sold in the SouthWest USA as they fully leverage the high rate of water absorption into dry HOT air. The greater rate of evaporation, the greater the reduction in air temp that will pass over the condenser coils.I have a double evap cooler in my 1800 sq ft garage (Direct and Indirect evap cooling built into the cooler) and while it is 100-120 deg consistently in the hot summer months near Vegas, my garage is at a consistent 70 deg. I have measured up to 45 deg Delta T’s of incoming air vs. supply air temp. So where you LIVE MATTERS!! There is lots of good charts on the web showing where evaporative cooling provides max. benefits…so this should be a major FACTOR into your buying decision.Is it worth it? This is where the EXTREME mix of variables come into play...Not only does where you live matter…but also, how big is the AC unit u are applying this too? The misterbox costs the same whether its put on a 2 ton unit, or a 10 ton unit. Obviously a 10 ton unit would provide about 5x more energy savings vs. a 2 ton unit, all else being equal.Next is run time…do you use the AC during the day, when outside temp is at its highest? If not, and night time temps are cool, evap cooling has minimal benefits, as AC units are already very efficient when outside temps are below 80 deg. Does the system run 24/7, or just a few days a week? Again, if you double the amount of days a system is used, it will double the savings, as there is no savings when the system is not in use…such as people who travel a lot and turn off the AC while gone.What are your kwh costs? KWH costs vary in the USA from as low as $.04 to $.35, so just this factor alone can create 8x the savings with all else being equal.So these are all judgement calls… And all these would reflect the ROI (Return on Investment) To put this in perspective I would suggest, on a larger AC unit that runs 24/7 year in PHX, this unit would pay for itself in a few summer months. OTOH, in a humid environment, low run time, small tonnage unit, cheap electricity, etc, this unit could take 6 - 10 years to pay for itself. So, lots of variables to consider.The issue was raised…. If this was so great, why is evap cooling not on every AC unit manufactured to raise SEER values to sell more units, we live in a capitalistic society, right? It's not that simple. We will prob. NEVER find these evap units sold on conventional AC units…as they are only effective in certain region / environments, unit size, and run time. An AC manufacturer has no idea if a unit made will be used in Duluth MN or Death Valley CA, so they would never install such a device from the factory. Conventional AC units are “one size fits all”, whereas an evap assisted cooling system is NOT. So they will always be aftermarket products, except for the AC units which had built in evap coolers… but many went out of business. It’s a competitive field.What are the risks? D.R. Lee touched on this quite extensively…and in general, his concerns are valid. City or well water can have a decent amount of TDS (total dissolved solids)…anywhere from 300-800ppm. While that does not seem like a lot…after a lot of water is evaporated, most of the solids deposit on the surrounding areas. In this case, the condensing coils is the big risk. Why? The metals used in both the condensing and evaporator coils are designed to maximize heat transfer. This is why coils are often called heat exchangers. That is, their sole purpose, is the transfer of heat between the metal interior / exterior. If you coat the condenser coils with solids, u will change the coefficient of thermal transfer of the coil, reducing the overall system efficiency. So, a bit of a double edge sword. In addition, many of these dissolved solids are very corrosive… then, the cleaning chemicals are corrosive also. So this is a quagmire.I have designed and built many of these systems in my career, both in my residences and for commercial applications. There is solutions for this, and I hope the maker pays attention to this, as it might ensure the products future success. The efficiency gains come from lowering the incoming air temp to the condenser… the water does NOT need to touch the coils. In a true Evap cooling system, the water is fed through a variety of different types of evaporative cooling mats…the air passes through the wet mats and evaporates the water. The solids in the water deposit in the mats. The mats are dirt cheap and can be changed a few times a year. However, this does complicate the installation. However, I would suggest u wrap the condensing unit with these evap cooling mats (avail at any hardware store that sells evap coolers)…u might have to jury rig it with tape, bungee cords or tie wraps. So some handyman skills required.jWhen finished, check to see if the water is all evaporating in the mat and not wetting the coils. If so, u will get all the benefits of evaporative cooling efficiency gains while avoiding damage and efficiency losses to the coil. Hopefully the maker will provide some details on their web site on some examples of how the homeowner can do this cost effectively. U have to experiment to get this right, as its NOT, “one size fits all” as each condenser will pull different volume of air…so vary mat thickness and water supply must be tweaked, till u get a set-up that works for you. While there is some mild parasitic losses of the added airfriction these mats create, its very minimal vs. the potential gains, ASSUMING u are applying this evap. Cooling product in the right application.As for RO water… I ran a 1500 gallon a day RO system to feed evap coolers..and remarkably, with enough water flow, even 3 – 8 ppm TDS water will create deposits on the mat, of course NO where near the level of deposits if city water was used…but RO water will never have 0 ppm TDS. And then, u must calc. the cost of the RO system into the equation… RO water also wastes 4-5 gallons for every usable purified gallon produced, so where water is costly consider this as well. In addition, RO water is slightly acidic, corroding the metal on the coils. Condenser mats are a cheap and simple solution, although they sure look horrible, so if your AC is located in the front of your house…u might have a tough sell job to your wife ;)Also, with the right application, the AC unit will experience much less run time, increasing its life expectancy, which is another huge advantage that should be considered in the ROI. This assumes the unit is sized properly, i.e. not undersized.Updated Jun 24 2016A word about efficiency gains vs. energy savings u see on your bill...this is a confusing subject, hopefully this below will help explain why at times u will get the efficiency gains from evaporative cooling, but NO energy savings on your electric bill...As mentioned above, while the lower incoming condensing air temp will increase the efficiency of the refrigerant cycle, it does so by increasing the cooling capacity while using the same amount of input energy. You would think, if you double the efficiency of something, u would consume half the nrg (like 40mpg vs. 20mpg car), well, in theory yes, but this does not always play out in the real world applications such as AC....Example.... Lets say you have an undersized AC unit, it runs continuously during the HOT months. You have the TStat set at 76 deg... but the unit can not keep up with the internal heat load, and the coolest the house gets is 80 degrees. Add a MisterBox... u will increase the cooling capacity of the AC unit, now the temp will fall close to 76 deg, but maybe not 1-2 deg below the set point to turn off the AC unit (called a a set point deadband). So what u accomplished is a much cooler house, but with no reduction in kwh consumed, as the unit is still running continuously, however, it's delivering much more cooling energy. So the nrg gains (eff. improvements) did occur, but they were used up by having a cooler house, vs. reduced kwh consumption. But in this case, the homeowner would prob. scream, no nrg savings on my electric bill! He/she would be right, but the system DID deliver the nrg benefits. This would be analogous, to the example above with 20mpg car u altered to achieve 40mpg, u would use half the fuel, and therefore half the $ ASSUMING u traveled the same distance. However, if you doubled the distance traveled of the 40mpg car, u would see no $ savings, even though the efficiency gains are REAL. Added cooling capacity is equiv. to the 40mpg car traveling greater distances. (when the AC system is VERY undersized) Of course, this is obvious with mpg of a car, but, its not so obvious to the avg. person regarding AC, cooling capacity gains, etc.In some cases, added cooling capacity alone is a great reason to add an evap cooler to an existing AC, as u will squeeze up to 2-3x more cooling capacity out of your existing unit, vs. the high cost of replacing an undersized unit with a higher tonnage AC unit. So, MistBox is not just for energy savings. In the right application, it can be equally as valuable as an AC BOOSTER, a means to generate more cooling capacity with your existing unit. Considering the cost of a new AC unit, the ROI here would be highly justified, as can possibly avoid a large capital cost of a NEW larger AC unit.Also, I run some very high SEER mini split system. These units are very efficient, often 22 SEER. One way they increase efficiency is by over-sizing the condensing coils... this allows the coils to release their heat in the atmosphere with OUT the condenser fan running. This is one of the tricks of higher SEER units. It also is ONE of the reasons they are outrageously priced. The size of the coils and the metals they are made of represent the single biggest cost of the AC unit. So with these units, u would get less benefit from a Misting system, specially if they are sized accordingly, or oversized, as the condensing fan would not be running very often. So much less saving would be realized.Again, an AC unit is a complex piece of equipment which have changed so much through the years. Then, each AC application is different, internal heat loads, outside air temps, run time, etc, hence why it's hard to make blanket statements for everyone's application.And BTW, for those who are considering these super high SEER units... I have installed about 10 so far, some with evap cooling systems, as I take the condenser water drain, and run it through an evap mat in front the straight-through condenser design. No water hits the coils...I get max. gain with minimal cost and the system is self regulating... of course, the condensate volume from the evap coil is not on par with the Misterbox, but it's free, and self regulating, no control box required. Of course, u need to design the drain system accordingly, as not all condensate drains exit where the condenser is.A word of caution about super high SEER units. They are so complex and so costly, I do not recommend them. Yes, they consume less nrg, but the savings are not justified when you look at the nearly 2x cost of the unit and the outrageous maint. cost on these units...every service call requires a different microprocessor board or variable speed drive to be replaced, $500-$2k service calls are the norm. So there is much to be said for lower SEER, basic units and maybe adding some evaporative cooling to assist its efficiency. This is what I like about the MistBox concept. Again, pls read my post to be assured u are applying the product in the right geographic region of the country to get maximum benefits.I would like to give this product 4 stars for ingenuity and reasonable price / performance. But I will give it 3 stars, as I am in agreement with D.R. Lee about possible risks which the company could / should easily mitigate with some explanation and examples on this Amazon page and on their web site. I will try to upgrade my review as the company continues to further the products development. Gotta love American ingenuity and tenacity… Kudos to Mistbox for getting the product to this level, hoping they continue to improve the product, price and detailed information so buyers can make smarter purchase decisions…Hope this helps Amazon shoppers with their buying decision….UPDATE: Energy savings calculation examples.This was in response to the D.R. Lee thread, for those who did not read that thread...sooner or later this topic would shift to "is the investment worth it" and rightfully so. I tried to be vague above regarding $avings, as its quite a complex subject. I did respond to that thread. I am including parts of that response below for those who want to get a grasp on the economics and see how the variables (which I mentioned above) have such a huge impact on the ROI (Return on Investment)..... I will provide some guidelines and formulas to help put the savings issue in perspective....An ideal application.... or a best case scenario...Extreme arid heatVery high run time unit, used all summer, 24/7(double the run time, double the savings)Larger capacity unit, a 5 ton unit.(A 5 ton unit will produce 2.5x the savings vs. a 2 ton unit, 5x vs. a 1 ton unit.)Very high kwh cost, $.24 per kwh( $.24 kwh will produce double the dollar savings vs. $.12 kwh.)ROI is not just about efficiency improvements, its about installed cost, life cycle cost, annual dollar savings, increased longevity of the AC system, or in some cases, decreased ;(In this best case scenario, a measly $400 investment would surely be returned in a month.I am trying to prevent this thread from turning into an energy engineering tutorial…. but since some people are well versed in the field, here is a very simplified energy savings formula to justify my statement above... for a rough calculation of energy savings, lets use this basic formula below.... i.e. calc how much annual cost to operate the AC system before installing the MistBox system.run hours x kw draw at 100% eff x COP x $/kwh = Annual electric costrun hours... lets assume in the 3 extreme summer months, the unit under heavy load runs 70% of the time...in 3 seasonal months, it operates on average 30% of the time, giving us a weighted average of 50% run-time for 6 months. 6x30x24x50% = 2160 run hours per season.KW draw... 5 tons * 12K BTU/Ton = 60K BTU / 3412 btu/kw = 17.5 KWthis is at 100% efficiency.COPthis is the wild card... which is where the savings comes from...lets assume this average curve (below) for sake of this calculation, these numbers will vary based on the age of the system and other variables, such as solar loads on the unit, the unit operating as designed (not low on refrigerant, damaged fans, clogged filters, dirty coils, etc)AC overall efficiency is ...80% eff at 115 deg outside400% eff at 80 deg outside(to understand how a system can exceed 100% efficiency, read above)So lets assume on avg, we drop the cond air temp by evaporation by 20 deg on avg. In the BEFORE scenario, lets assume an avg COP of 150% for the entire cooling season.Back to the cost of operation calculation (pre evap system)run hours x kw draw x COP x $/kwh = Annual electric cost2160 x 17.5 x (100/150) x $.24 = $6047 annual elect costNow, we add a misting system…The only variable that will change is the COP. The KW remains the same, as the system simply produces more cooling capacity, which in return reduces the run time. But since the factors are all linear, we only need to change the COP. i.e if we double the capacity, we half the run time. So on average, lets say the COP with the mister averages 250%. So re calc with 100/250. Or, .66 vs. .40, or .26/.66= 40% reduction in consumption (COP improvement for the season.) $2400 annual savings, or $400 per month… so u will save enough in one month to get your investment back…or a 600% annual return on your investment. Factor in labor, evap pad change outs, maybe a bit less. Obviously a very sensible investment, assuming of course u manage it properly and not reduce the life expectancy of your AC unit.Now, lets see how fast the investment degrades when we move to a worst case scenario, i.e. much less desirable set of factors…. Lower heat in area, run hours are 1/5th, a one ton unit, or 1/5th, electric cost is $.04, or 1/6th… lets leave COP alone… savings would be 5x5x6= 1/150th, or .00666 x $2400 savings = $16 per year. Clearly, a horrible application for applying evap cooling for energy savings.Anyway, hopefully this will put things in perspective for you….and u will have a better appreciation on why blanket statements on savings and economic feasibility are misleading and unfair… every system must be evaluated on its own set of variables. One scenario makes no economic sense, and another scenario is the best investment u can find. Yes, it swings are that dramatic.I would suggest MistBox starts working utilities to offer rebates on the installation. Utilities would also benefit greatly from such, as they reduce mid day KW capacity, which is the most costly KWH's they generate or purchase. One final issue I added at end of comments section.Hope this helps

AMAZING!!! I installed this on our unit because during the heat of the summer...the unit NEVER turned off and our electric bill was HUGE!! After installing the Mistbox my electric bill was $150.00 lower than the previous month!! It WORKS!!

I live in the valley area of NorCal.-plenty of sunshine on my system and solar charger doesn't seem to work well. System died requiring an overnight x2 charge via an extension cord.-iPhone app doesn't show any savings (still), even after carefully re-setting everything up multiple times over the last couple of months. Never did get through the set up via an android device and actually shipped the unit back for a return only to find out it was the app software that was the issue, not the hardware.-filter seems to be subpar? Misting leaves everything covered in a residue and I had to buy a filter for the actual faucet (Home Depot, find their misting hardware, but a misting filter for the hose)-no real ROI that we can see so far. I have a 3 ton A/C unit for a family of four and even with setting the thermostat at 78 with this misting unit, we still produce bills in excess of $400/month, same as without the mister.-hardware seems to function correctly and starts/stops it's cycles on responsively, it just doesn't have much of an impact on the actual bill-in app support is great and the owner/ceo (or someone claiming to be him) has dealt with me for support on a number of occasions.