Refrigeration production using free cooling

Conference · Sun Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1982

OSTI ID:5043638

Rademeyer, J J

Bendix operates two boilerhouses to heat and cool approximately 2.5 million ft/sup 2/. The West Boilerhouse has 8 refrigeration machines totaling 9000 tons. The East Boilerhouse has 10 machines totaling 5100 tons. We have begun a program to replace outdated machines and retrofit existing machines to enable them to do free cooling. Free cooling adapts a basic water chiller so it may function as a simple heat exchanger using refrigerant as the working fluid. Whenever condenser water is available at temperatures lower than the desired chilled water temperature, free cooling can provide up to 45% of a chiller's nominal capacity without the operation of its compressor. This will result in substantial energy savings, because the majority of the cost associated with making chilled water is from operation of the compressor. The operation of the free cooling chiller and its performance are discussed. Two 500-ton centrifugal chillers with the free cooling option were installed in the East Boilerhouse in July 1981. During the cold winter months when free chilling was used, a savings of 148,800 kwh of electricity (worth $5609) for compressor operation was achieved. It is estimated that retrofitting four 1000-ton centrifugal chillers for free cooling will have a discounted payback period of 1.1 years. (LCL)

• Research Organization: Bendix Corp., Kansas City, MO (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00613
• OSTI ID: 5043638
• Report Number(s): BDX-613-2827; CONF-820862-1; ON: DE82905966
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320100* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Buildings
42 ENGINEERING
420200 -- Engineering-- Facilities
Equipment
& Techniques
BUILDINGS
COOLING
COST
ENERGY CONSERVATION
MACHINERY
OPERATING COST
OPERATION
PAYBACK PERIOD
PERFORMANCE
POWER DEMAND
REFRIGERATING MACHINERY
RETROFITTING