An air-cooled condenser condenses 10–15 K above the ambient temperature; on a 40 °C summer day condensing is at 52–55 °C. In an evaporative condenser the tubes are wetted and air is drawn across them by fans; the evaporation of the water pulls heat from the tubes and the condensing temperature approaches the "wet-bulb" temperature of the outside air: 32–35 °C on the same day. Every 1 K lower condensing temperature cuts compressor consumption by about 2–3%; the difference can save 20–30% energy a year.
This is why evaporative condensers are common in ammonia plants, large central systems and cold storage warehouses in hot climates. In return come maintenance burdens such as water consumption (evaporated and bled-off water), water quality and scale management, freeze protection in winter and legionella precautions.
At small and medium capacities the simplicity and low maintenance of the air-cooled condenser outweigh this. In dry climates such as Konya the wet-bulb temperature is low, so the gain from evaporative cooling is especially large; adding adiabatic pre-cooling (wetted pads) to a condenser is an intermediate solution that gives a similar gain without moving to a fully evaporative system.