Role of Air or Water Cooled Chillers

Chillers are a significant component of the HVAC framework of hotels, hospitals as well as other commercial buildings.

This system consumes about 50% of used electric power in commercial buildings.

As put forward by the Department of Energy in the US, chillers are responsible for the consumption of 20% of the total electric energy produced in North America. It has also been enlightened that some defects related to operations can increase the consumption of up to 30% of the total electricity produced.

Considering it all, many factors make a chilling framework vital for any commercial building. There are two kinds of chilling systems—namely, Air-cooled chilling system and water-cooled chilling system.

In this article, we are trying to decode the basic framework of both types of chillers.

What is Air cooled chiller?

Air cooled chiller in industries is part of the system that helps with refrigeration. Its work is to cool down fluid and assist the method of air handling in the commercial building.

It consists of four major components:

Evaporator, compressor, condenser and expansion valve. In air cooled chillers, heat is absorbed from the chilled water from the tubes of the evaporator bundle. The heat is discharged into the surrounding atmosphere around the chiller.

What is water cooled chiller?

It is similar to air cooled chillers in the framework. It also contains four same components. There are two steps involved in its functioning. There is a transfer of heat from refrigerant vapor to condenser water. Then the warm water gets pumped to a cooling tower. At this point, discharge of heat takes place.

Major difference

There are many differences between an air-cooled and a water-cooled chiller. Here we will take a look at two significant distinctions.

• The condensers present in an air-cooled chiller make use of ambient air for reducing the temperatures of the refrigerant. Whereas in water cooled chiller, refrigerator chilling takes place with the help of the high heat capacity of water.

• The water cooled chiller is less costly to set up, but maintenance of the same is costly. Air cooled chiller is less expensive to maintain but more costly to set up.

Conclusion

Air cooled water chiller is vital components of the HVAC framework for any industrial building. Both kinds of chillers have almost the same types of features. But there are specific differences in both. We have discussed the distinctions as well as their role in this article.

Resource: https://sasguv.blogspot.com/2021/04/role-of-air-or-water-cooled-chillers.html