Cooling Tower and Condenser Water Design Part 11: Avoiding Common Pitfalls

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We thought it would be a good idea to review some of the most common pitfalls in cooling tower/condenser water design and how to avoid them. We see these so often and the consequences can be so profound that each bears a final warning. Take care to avoid these scenarios and we promise that everyone (from your equipment suppliers to your chemical treatment specialist) will be much happier.
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Cooling Tower and Condenser Water Design Part 10: How Counterflow and Crossflow Towers Differ

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Most commercial HVAC professionals are probably already aware that there are two different types of cooling towers – crossflow and counterflow. While both operate on the principle of evaporative cooling by blowing air across water, the physical configuration of these two types of cooling towers differs quite a bit. Read more....
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Cooling Tower and Condenser Water Design Part 9: Controlling Cycles of Concentration

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Successful cooling tower operation and performance involves a delicate balance between (1) keeping the dissolved solids (such as calcium, magnesium, chloride, and silica) in the water from causing too much scale and/or corrosion and (2) conserving make-up water. It’s expensive, inefficient, and environmentally irresponsible to continuously dilute cooling tower water with an abundance of make-up water just to keep the ratio of minerals down. But how do you decide how much make-up water is needed to keep minerals within a tolerable range?
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Cooling Tower and Condenser Water Design Part 8: Pump Suction and Discharge Piping

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Correctly piping the suction and discharge of your cooling tower/condenser water pump is critical. Some fairly catastrophic events can occur if either is improperly installed. Here are some best practices for piping cooling tower/condenser water systems....
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Cooling Tower and Condenser Water Design Part 7: Staging Cooling Towers and Chillers

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Want to make sure the cooling towers in the systems you design operate as intended? If you are a design engineer, you are responsible for outlining the staging sequences of the cooling tower systems you design. This means putting together a list of the acceptable operational sequences, outlining what every piece of equipment will be doing at each and every stage. Here's how you develop that list which the controls vendor will use to program the system...
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