Chillers use scroll, screw or centrifugal compressors, or absorption cycles driven by heat. Air-cooled chillers reject heat through outdoor fans; water-cooled chillers reject it to a cooling tower and run more efficiently. Typical comfort chillers supply water in the low to mid 40s degrees F. Capacity is in tons and efficiency in kilowatts per ton, with part-load performance summarized as IPLV.
Chiller two is surging at light load, drop the condenser water temperature a couple of degrees and see if it steadies.
Log condenser and evaporator approach weekly; the trend tells you when to brush tubes long before capacity drops.
Also heard as
- water chiller
Related terms
Cooling tower
Equipment that cools condenser water by evaporating a small part of it into an airstream.
Barrel
Shop name for a chiller's shell-and-tube evaporator or condenser vessel.
Approach
The temperature gap between a fluid leaving a heat exchanger and the fluid or condition it is being brought toward.
IPLV
Integrated part load value: a single weighted chiller efficiency figure that reflects operation at 100, 75, 50 and 25 percent load.
Ton
A unit of cooling capacity equal to 12,000 Btu per hour, the heat needed to melt a ton of ice in a day.