Patent ID: 8627673

Claim:
An atmospheric water harvester (AWH), comprising: a housing; a cooling device disposed within the housing for condensing atmospheric moisture; an airflow passageway extending through the housing from a first inlet, across the cooling device, to one or more outlets; a heat exchanger having a first heat exchange portion disposed upstream of the cooling device and a second heat exchange portion disposed downstream of the cooling device, the heat exchanger being arranged to transfer heat from air traversing the first heat exchange portion to cooler air that has traversed the cooling device and that is traversing the second heat exchange portion, whereby air entering the airflow passageway through the first inlet can be pre-cooled before traversing the cooling device; a second inlet, which is a bypass inlet, arranged to introduce air into the airflow passageway at a location downstream of the heat exchanger's first heat exchange portion and upstream of the cooling device, whereby air entering the airflow passageway through the second inlet is not pre-cooled before traversing the cooling device; one or more fans or impellers arranged to propel air through the atmospheric water harvester; and ambient temperature and humidity sensors; wherein the atmospheric water harvester further comprises a controller that is programmed to control the relative amounts of air entering the airflow passageway through the first and second inlets based on measured ambient temperature and humidity so as to achieve a predetermined level of relative humidity of air that reaches to traverse the cooling device.