Cooling of industrial and office buildings
A large number of options are available for comfort cooling, with air conditioning and refrigeration systems being classified as centralised or decentralised systems, depending on their mode of operation and installation.
The eChiller is suited for air-water systems, and particularly to water-only systems. Water-only systems include chilled beams and ceilings, as well as all other types of convectors.
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Chilled beams and ceilings are used in comfort cooling for rejecting huge heat loads to ambient.
Surface cooling systems use a network of pipes through which water is pumped (typically at 16° C) to absorb heat, cooling the room. Metal-panel and cassette ceilings with pressed coils and thermal insulation are used for closed ceiling surface cooling applications with heat transfer capabilities in the range of 80 W/m² to 100 W/m². Open ceiling surface cooling applications, in the contrary, which include cooling plates and cooling sails, have transfer capabilities in the range of 100 W/m² to 130 W/m².
The use of cooling or heating systems that use a building’s mass for temperature control is also known as “building component activation” or “concrete core activation”. Building component activation uses a meandering system of pipes laid in the concrete floor/ceiling slabs, and water as the cooling medium. The thermal loads which accumulate during the day are stored in the concrete, and transferred to the cooling water during night-time. Concrete core activation is ideal for water pump-based cooling.
Chilled water cassettes offer an optimal solution for all small and large rooms in which the installation of free convection is not feasible. Chilled water cassettes are usually installed in the suspended ceiling and come with a range of cooling capacities. These can be operated with a chilled water temperature of 16° C, too.
The central challenges for operators of comfort cooling are:
Given the eChiller’s emission-free design, an installation close to the cooling loads is recommended when planning the building. This avoids extensive piping and thus pressure- and energy losses, as well as availability risks. At the same time, this semi-centralised installation greatly simplifies the apportioning of energy costs within large buildings. In this way, varying cooling requirements can be easily accommodated – and often centrally controlled – across different zones of a single storey.