rkillings Jan 12, 2011:

Abusive? Dry cooling towers work by convection from the working fluid to the air.
Wet cooling towers work by evaporation of the working fluid.
Is that not a fair description of the heat transfer mechanisms?

chris collister Jan 11, 2011:

Strictly speaking, any form of refrigeration is "evaporative", it's just that some are closed systems (eg ammonia or freon) while others can be open, such as water evaporative systems. These are quite cheap to build and run, but require vast quantities of water, and of course the ever-present threat of legionella.
By abuse of language, however, "evaporative" is usually/often taken to mean an open-cycle water system.