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RPBrown wrote:In theory, the misters are a good idea. However, with the water in Texas, long term use of even 1 season can cause scale build up on the coils and virtually no way to remove it. The misters will lower pressures which lower power consumption but not for long. Once the scale starts to build up, the pressures and power consumption go back up eventually causing failure, either the coil or compressor.

I went to a customers home for her yearly spring inspection. Her son had installed a mister last year after I had done the inspection. The scale was so bad, the only option we had was to either replace the unit or the coil. She chose the unit.
So, no, I do not recommend a mister system.

I know that there are some units that use the moisture from the evaporator and sling that water (via fan) to the condenser.. These are usually smaller units... The usage makes sense to me.

The scale that PR talks about is a function of dissolved solids in the water. So scale will be worse where water is hard (even if you run it through a softener). We have ridiculously hard water - but maybe this system might work better if you have relatively mineral free water?

Condenser coils should be cleaned. They're usually cleaned with an acidic solution that will remove some of these deposits. Too many deposits and you'd end up with a condition like RP is talking about... But evaporation cooling can certainly improve the performance of heat transfer. I had a car that had an intercooler "sprayer" that would turn on during periods of high boost (heat). Apparently it was good for a few hp...

Not knowing any better in practicality, I'd follow RPs advice. I'd like to know what the "tax deduction" was based on though.