Introduction to Water Source Heat Pump Systems Part 3: Basic Operation

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Introduction to Water Source Heat Pump Systems Part 3: Basic Operation

WSHPs operate similarly to traditional air source heat pumps (ASHPs) in that they transfer heat rather than creating it from a combustible fuel. Both incorporate a refrigeration cycle to facilitate heat transfer and both include a valve to reverse the cycle, depending on whether the unit is in heating or cooling mode. The primary distinction between WSHPs and ASHPs is….

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How To Size A Waterside Economizer Part 3: Cooling Tower Piping Strategies

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How To Size A Waterside Economizer Part 3: Cooling Tower Piping Strategies

Waterside economizing relies on cold water from the cooling tower (aka condenser water) to absorb some or all of the heat from inside the building. In typical waterside economizing applications, plate & frame heat exchangers are used to…

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Cooling Tower and Condenser Water Design Part 3: Understanding Tonnage, Range, and Approach

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Last time we talked about the impact that the wet bulb temperature has on cooling tower performance. In summary, it’s harder to evaporate water into air that’s already wet. (I.e. The higher the wet bulb, the harder a cooling tower has to work to evaporate enough water to maintain set points.) In this blog, we’re going to define what those set points are, how cooling towers are rated, and finally how these factors impact the cooling tower size and operation for a given application.
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Cooling Tower and Condenser Water Design Part 1: The Refrigeration Cycle

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Cooling towers are simple mechanisms. Their operation is based on the natural occurrence of evaporative cooling – something most of us have experienced daily since the first time we got wet and felt a chill. But despite their simplicity, cooling towers play a crucial role in operational efficiency of the entire chilled water system. Not only are they the exit point for all those BTUs in a building that the chilled water system is working so hard to absorb and eliminate, their operation has the potential to significantly reduce the amount kWs going to the biggest energy hog in our system—the chiller.
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