Medina, Saudi Arabia

Project details

Products

Condair ML in-room humidification

The world's largest evaporative cooling system

Condair has designed, manufactured and supplied a spray evaporative cooling system that conditions the air across a 15-hectare site in the Saudi Arabian city of Medina by up to 10°C.

Medina is the second most important pilgrimage site in Islam and is home to one of the largest mosques in the world. Millions of Muslims make an annual pilgrimage to the Saudi city, which is hot and dry all year round.

Cooling innovation under Medina’s sun umbrellas

In the sun, the temperature often rises to 50°C. In order to provide visitors to the outdoor site with greater comfort, large umbrellas have been erected to provide protection from the sun. There are a total of 250 sun umbrellas, with each one providing shade for an area of around 600 m².

During a visit to the USA, the King of Saudi Arabia saw an outdoor air conditioning system that vaporized water, thereby cooling the air. The King was so enthusiastic about this technology that he wanted to install a similar system under the sun umbrellas in Medina.

The supplier of the large umbrellas first attempted to develop a suitable system himself. When this proved unsuccessful, he turned to Condair. Within just a few months the supply contract had been signed. Condair then developed the special parts, including a special pump station that could be integrated into the enormous sun umbrellas. These water pumps are installed at a height of six meters directly below the light fixtures. In addition to the pumps, Condair also supplied the spray elements that are installed on the ventilators and discharge vaporized water.

Overcoming extreme conditions with large-scale cooling

Two of the biggest challenges were the requirement for an extremely low noise level and the limited space available for installing the water pumps.

Further challenges included the extremely high ambient temperatures and the exacting hygienic requirements for the system. The entire system is designed for operation in ambient temperatures up to 60 degrees Celsius.

As only Muslims can access the prayer site, Condair provided training for the installation mechanics so they themselves could manage both the installation of the pump stations and the necessary hygienic control for the entire system. When all the systems are operating 50,000 litres of water per hour can be vaporized. This results in a pleasant and appreciable drop in temperature of up to 10°C across the site.

Once the prototypes had been approved at the end of 2010, all 250 pump stations were manufactured in spring 2011. The installation was completed in August 2011 and since then pilgrims to the site have been enjoying cooler air temperatures thanks to the biggest outdoor evaporative cooling system in the world.

Condair ML

The Condair ML Series is a high-pressure humidification system that atomizes water directly into the room using fine nozzles. It provides efficient humidification and evaporative cooling with low energy consumption, quiet operation, and minimal maintenance—ideal for industrial and commercial environments.

Condair in action

Projects and references

Haramain High Speed Railway, Saudi Arabia

The Haramain high-speed Railway is a major infrastructure project for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, connecting the cities of Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah and the developing King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC).

JetSpray humidifiers provides evaporative cooling to the platforms and cool commuters with low energy, high capacity direct air cooling at Makkah and Madinah stations.

JetSpray systems provide cooling to the platforms via series of high level nozzles integrated within the lighting columns.

Apple Campus, Cupertino

Cupertino, California, located close to San Francisco, is home to the headquarters of American technology company Apple. The building was designed by British architect Norman Foster, who realized the idea of an oversized ring in connection with the former Apple Campus at Infinite Loop No. 1 in Cupertino.

At a diameter of almost half a kilometre (461 m), the building complex offers a gigantic usable area of 260,000 m2 and space for 12,000 employees. The ring contains a 130,000 m2 park with rest areas, cafés, sports facilities and a rainbow-coloured festival stage, which was inaugurated by Lady Gaga in 2018. Powered entirely by renewable energy,
the building features a 17-megawatt rooftop solar energy system and energy-efficient evaporative cooling from Condair.

Apple Park, Cupertino - USA