Water Cooled Centralized Air Conditioning System Works

In most chiller applications a water cooled condenser uses a cooling tower to reduce the temperature of the condenser.

Water cooled centralized air conditioning system works.

The chilled water types of central air conditioning plants are installed in the place where whole large buildings shopping mall airport hotel etc comprising of several floors are to be air conditioned. Water cooled chillers are almost always located inside of a building. The water that has been cooled by the evaporated water at the cooling tower will enter the condenser at 85 f or 29 c. While in the direct expansion type of central air conditioning plants refrigerant is directly used to cool the room air.

Note that each specific cooling system should be analyzed because of variances mineral content of make up water system load annual hours of operation etc to determine site specific energy savings greenhouse gas ghg reductions. In fact it employs the same types of components materials and systems as a refrigerator including a refrigerant that changes from liquid to gas and back to liquid as it travels through a system of tubes and coils or fins that collect and give off heat. In this case the water loop system is separated from the chilled water that goes to the building. Water is used to cool the hot air refrigerant 180 f or 82 c from the compressor by pumping counter flow water in the condenser.

This table compares air cooled and water cooled systems using national averages for a 400 ton cooling system. There are several different ways that water is used in air conditioning. The outdoor unit contains the condenser coil compressor electrical components and a fan. A chilled water system using an air cooled chiller water cooled chiller.

They work almost the same way as air cooled chillers. The most common use is in cooling towers a cooling tower can be any size from really gigantic down to the size of an automobile. A central air conditioner is like a giant refrigerator for your house. Chilled water systems in a chilled water system the entire air conditioner is installed on the roof or behind the building.

The difference is that they remove heat from chilled water by exhausting the heat to a second isolated water line called the condenser water line. In a cooling tower air blows over water to create evaporative cooling and this cooler water is used in the heat exchanger of say an air conditioner. Water cooled air conditioner is also called water cooled condenser as its function is to reject the heat that was absorbed by the refrigerant in the evaporator. It cools water to between 40 and 45 degrees fahrenheit 4 4 and 7 2 degrees celsius.

The chilled water branches off the risers into smaller diameter pipes which head to the fan coil units fcu s and air handling units ahu s to provide air conditioning. The ahu s and fcu s are basically boxes with fans inside that suck air in from the building and push it across the heating or cooling coils to change the temperature. In the chilled water plants the refrigerant first chills the water.