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BOILERS, CHILLERS
Learning objectives:
1. Understand the codes and standards that guide CHW system design and
energy e ciency requirements.
2. Learn design basics for CHW systems to meet a distribution loop’s load
requirements.
Regardless of whether the design is for a new chilled water (CHW) system or a modi cation to an
existing system, an early review of codes, standards, and regulations is necessary to allow for an
expedient design and avoid con icts that will cost time and money to resolve. Local, state, and federal
codes and regulations will dictate permitting requirements that affect the location of buildings and
equipment (central plants, cooling towers, buried piping systems), fuel handling and storage,
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environmental emissions and noise, water quality, and safety items.
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ASHRAE has numerous technical sources of information including a series of four handbooks that are
updated every 4 years. Two of these handbooks, Fundamentals – 2013 and HVAC Systems and
Equipment – 2012, contain several chapters lled with information and basic criteria needed to design
CHW systems. Each handbook has an entire chapter dedicated to listing “Selected Codes and Standards
Published by Various Societies and Associations” relevant to the topics covered within the handbooks.
All of the related building system codes—Building O cials Code Administrators International (BOCA) and
International Building Code (IBC )—and system components such as piping (ASME B31), ductwork
(SMACNA), motors and generators (IEEE, NEMA, UL), and other codes and standards are listed for
reference. This is very valuable for any designer or engineer beginning a new project, as these resources
are updated every 3 or 4 years.
There are several major components within a CHW system, but chillers are machines lled with
refrigerants used in the exchange of heat to “create” and provide the cold water. When chillers are placed
in rooms or con ned spaces, the designer of the system must incorporate safety provisions to the
equipment operator and/or the public. ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 15-2013: Safety Standard for
Refrigeration Systems is the reference standard for “machinery rooms” that typically house the larger
equipment (i.e., chillers, pumps) necessary for a CHW system. This standard should be used in
conjunction with ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 34-2013, Designation and Safety Classi cation of Refrigerants.
ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2013: Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings is the
reference standard for energy e ciency. This standard illustrates minimum e ciency and control
systems requirements along with commissioning for building envelope, HVAC, power, lighting, and other
equipment, all of which is included in a CHW system design. In ASHRAE 90.1, Chapter 6 is where
designers will nd minimum energy e ciency requirements for HVAC and CHW system construction
with listings for component items such as water- and air-cooled chillers, piping system design ow rates,
insulation, and controls.
In addition, ASHRAE also published Guideline 22-2012: Instrumentation for Monitoring Central Chilled-
Water Plant E ciency, which helps designers better understand how to control CHW plants, and has
recently developed a District Cooling Guide – 2013 under the auspices of ASHRAE Technical Committee
6.2, District Energy, which does an excellent job of covering items mentioned later in this article.
From the early years of HVAC design, the use of CHW to transfer heat from areas of higher loads (e.g.,
building loads at air handler coils, or industrial equipment loads at heat exchangers) to a condensing
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water loop or a refrigeration system for heat rejection has been successful. In a very broad sense, a CHW
system consists of the following components:
Each of the CHW and CW/refrigerant distribution systems will include various additional components
and devices such as a pump, a compressor, an expansion tank, air separators/air eliminators, water or
refrigerant treatment and ltration devices, isolation and control valves, and a controls system consisting
of numerous temperature, pressure, and ow rate metering and control devices. For chillers using air
cooling on the condenser side, there is no need for a condenser water loop including piping, cooling
tower, and pump. For this article, the uid systems discussed will be water only.
The CHW portion of the system circulates and ows between the chiller and the building loads through
pumping by the CHW pump (although dependent upon the system, usually referred to as the primary
pump), and can be operated as constant ow or variable ow. For water-cooled chillers, a condenser
water loop is necessary, and always operates when the chiller is energized to operate. This loop also
requires a condenser water pump to circulate the CW through the piping between the chiller and the
cooling tower or heat rejection device (radiator or closed circuit cooler). The CW system has traditionally
been a constant ow (CF) system, but recently designs have included variable ow (VF) in this system as
well. Any variable ow application (CHW or CW) increases the intricacy of the design, construction, and
operation of a system, but at times of low load and corresponding reduced ow rate requirement, may
offer signi cant pump energy savings. Decisions regarding constant and variable system ows dictate
designs typically referred to as primary/secondary (PS) and variable primary (VP) system designs.
Depending on the size of the building and the related cooling loads necessary to cool and dehumidify the
building’s airstreams or other processes where some form of cooling is needed, the CHW system may
have more than one of the larger components mentioned (chillers, cooling towers, pumps), and may be
independent from nearby surrounding buildings. Or the building may have some combination of CHW
distribution piping systems connected to a larger thermal utility network that serves several buildings
simultaneously from a large, remote central plant arrangement.
The rst step in designing any e cient, effective HVAC system for a building is to perform an accurate
building load calculation and energy model. The 2013 ASHRAE Handbook-Fundamentals Chapters 18
and 19, and ASHRAE 90.1 provide methods and guidelines for developing HVAC load calculations and
building energy modeling. The type of CHW system designed and installed and the amount of the CHW
required for these cooling loads will be a major component in the overall building energy usage. When
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to outdoor air (OA) ventilation requirements, and the energy needed to condition that amount of air ow,
along with the internal building’s return air (RA) loads and any other process heat loads, should be part of
the system considerations so all the equipment can be sized and controlled properly to account for all the
energy impacts, including the energy transfer for hydronic system preheat or precool opportunities.
An independent, stand-alone single chiller system type is relatively easy to design and operate, but even
though the rst cost is less, this system is typically the least energy-e cient design for buildings. This is
because chillers are normally selected within a small percentage range of the calculated design process
loads of the building (or buildings) they serve. Based on a variety of research, and dependent on the
building loads throughout the day, the majority of the time the CHW system operates at part load and is
in the 45% to 60% range. The chiller operates at full capacity for only a small percentage of time.
Figure 2 is a schematic that shows a building single-chiller CHW system. Figure 2 illustrates a similar
independent system, but where multiple components would be installed because the building, and the
cooling load, is larger or redundancy is required (N+1). In both single-chiller and multiple-chiller
arrangements, the CHW loop can be either constant ow or variable ow (which must remain above
manufacturer required minimum ows).
The use of two or more chillers with part load capacity will
provide more opportunities to improve the CHW system
part-load performance and help reduce energy
consumption, and can greatly assist in providing
redundancy in the design. These chillers can be designed
to operate in series or parallel modes. (Figure 5 is a parallel
chiller arrangement.)
Finally, the building or buildings may not have any chillers or cooling towers, but only CHW distribution
piping systems connected to a larger thermal utility network from a remote CHW central plant (CP)
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arrangement. Typically these central CHW plants
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1. Primary-secondary (PS)
2. Variable-primary (VP).
In the PS scheme, the primary CHW loop is typically constant volume ow while the secondary loop is
variable volume ow. There are still some older systems where the secondary loop is also constant
volume. This loop will have three-way valves located at some or all of the building loads to allow for
required minimum ow rates. However, these systems are commonly being replaced because the
technology and e ciencies of the chillers have increased, as have the energy costs associated with
operating the distribution system. The VP scheme, sometimes called direct-primary, can be either a
constant or a variable volume ow system. Again, because energy costs are so important, this loop is
usually variable ow with variable frequency drives (VFDs) on the primary pumps.
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However, lower leaving water temperatures use more energy that may not be offset by perceived gains in
pumping and fan energy savings. Colder supply water means higher compressor horsepower costs. And
the selected delta T will also affect a building’s air handler coils regarding ow rates and supply air
temperatures. The distribution loop’s supply temperature should be set for the building’s temperature and
humidity control needs. The total annual system energy use must be considered for any of these options.
Low delta T syndrome occurs when a design CHW temperature range is not maintained. Every CHW
plant will experience low delta T at some point during its continued operation. This phenomenon causes
plant operators to run extra pumps and chillers to meet CHW load. This in turn reduces the plant’s cooling
output capacity and wastes energy. A CHW plant’s output capacity can be de ned by the following
equation for a water-only system:
Hydraulic modeling
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(chillers, pumps, etc.) as well as the pressure class of all the distribution piping, ttings, and valves within
the system. These pressures will, in turn, be related to the selected pumping scheme. The typical system
delivering CHW from a chiller or the entire central plant is a closed loop hydronic system, and this means
that the starting point within the system is the same as the ending point within that system. For
reference, the typical condenser water system is considered an open loop, but it can be closed dependent
on the heat rejection equipment used.
Every component within the CHW system will affect the pressure of the CHW at any point and will: x the
pressure at a particular level, increase the pressure, or decrease the pressure. Expansion tanks within a
closed loop system will act as the point of constant pressure and be considered the reference pressure
for the system, and will also allow for the expansion or contraction of the CHW due to thermal and
volumetric changes in the closed system. The CHW pumps will increase pressure by raising the suction
pressure at the pump by the total dynamic head of the system.
The total dynamic head of the system is de ned as “equal to the total discharge head minus the total
suction head of the CHW pump typically expressed in feet of water.” All equipment within the system
(chillers, heat exchangers), and all piping, ttings, isolation and/or control valves, and any other
appurtenances will decrease the system pressure through the friction effects as the water passes
through the system.
System controls
Control sequences are a key element in achieving any energy management and savings goals. Most
chiller control sequences are straightforward and easy to use for the operation of one or more chillers
within a plant. All chillers have an internal sequence they use to run, and a series of safety sequences to
prevent inadvertent damage while starting or running. An overall control sequence can be simply
manually enabling the chiller or chillers to run as needed, although this could lead to wasted energy as
the chillers will run even when not needed, or automating the process through a BAS.
The control schemes for a CHW system usually vary with the size and complexity of the system, and
especially with the type of pumping scheme chosen. The system’s CHW ow can be controlled from
static pressure, which provides some reliability but has limited exibility for operational changes, and can
waste energy in over pumping. Or, CHW ow can be controlled from differential pressure using delta P at
the CHW plant, in the distribution system, and/or at the hydraulically most remote location. In addition,
there is typically some type of chiller staging sequence such as with load or amps (kilowatts) of the
motors, or some other strategy such as Btu metering and metering secondary CHW ow rates.
As mentioned earlier, ASHRAE has developed numerous sources of information for CHW systems that
can be used as resources for the designer. Furthermore, ASHRAE 90.1 requires various efforts such as
pump pressure optimization where pump control setpoints are varied due to control valve positions in the
system, and CHW temperature reset, which uses feedback from the building control valves and outside
air temperatures to reset the CHW supply temperature upward when available to reduce chiller loads. In
some cases, these efforts may be easy, particularly if the CHW system is relatively small and/or the
chiller plant is part of the building.
It is not as easy if the chiller plant is part of a campus environment, although decoupling the central plant
control from any building-level control would allow the plant to operate as it needs to while the buildings
all operate separately. A complete optimization of a plant must evaluate the e ciency of the entire CHW
system and operate all the individual components (chillers, cooling towers, pumps) at various levels to
optimize the overall CHW system operation.
Randy Schrecengost is a project manager/senior mechanical engineer with Stanley Consultants. He has
extensive experience in design and project and program management at all levels of engineering, energy
consulting, and facilities engineering. He is a member of the Consulting-Specifying Engineer editorial
advisory board.
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References
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