A lot of building owners and property managers ask the question, When Does Cooling Tower Fill Need Replacing?. There are 5 signs that your cooling tower fill media is worn out and needs to be replaced. When the fill isnt doing its job properly the cooling tower is using much more energy to do its job. Save money, service your cooling tower, and make sure the fill is working properly.
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There are 5 many signs that your cooling tower fill needs to be replaced. Read through this list to better understand what to watch for, and know when you need to call your local cooling tower maintenance company.
When fill isnt doing its job properly the water flowing through the cooling tower isnt getting cooled. This means that to do the job the cooling tower is designed to do at your location it will take more electricity to do the same job. While electricity prices to change if youve seen a marked increase in your bill you might check the cooling tower and the cooling tower fill.
Makeup water contains a lot of dissolved solids and one of them in calcium. Calcium from hard water will build up in the fill causing blockages. When your fill is clogged the air and water cannot pass through and the cooling tower will not work. In some cases the fill can be cleaned, in others the buildup is severe enough to require cooling tower fill replacement.
All cooling towers are designed to maximize the contact between the water and air running through them. When the water isnt being distributed properly because the fill is damaged or clogged it dramatically impacts the performance of the cooling tower. Much more energy will need to be used to get the necessary cooling needed for your industrial application or HVAC system.
Poor quality or old fill may warp from heat or sag with age. If this happens you can expect that there is incredibly uneven water distribution. Replacement of fill is a great option in these cases as one of the common reason fill sags or warps is that it simply old or has been damaged.
Support grids are the structure that holds your fill in place. If water has degraded the structure, or there have been other types of damage your fill will not be performing correctly. This can be a cause for fill packs to sag, warp, or simply fall out of place. If your fill isnt sitting where it should be, it isnt doing its job. Invest in your cooling tower maintenance and ensure that your support grids are up to par.
There are a number of important cooling tower maintenance tasks to keep your cooling tower running at optimum efficiency. Fill is one of the most important elements for the performance of the cooling tower. It is where the hot cycle water goes to be cooled by the air flowing through the fill. If your fill has buildup, clogging, or is damaged we can help!
Cooling towers play an important role in a commercial HVAC system, and proper cooling tower maintenance can help ensure their efficiency and longevity. In this article, well talk about when you should expect to have your cooling tower serviced by a professional, and well mention a few things that can cause poor cooling tower function if left unmaintained.
Cooling towers work in tandem with water-cooled chillers. A chiller is responsible for removing heat from an area in a building, and it adds that heat to a supply of water. That heated water is pumped to the cooling tower, which sprays the water through a cool air supply. The air absorbs some of the heat, and then the cooled water collects in the bottom of the tower and makes its way back to the chiller. In evaporative cooling towers, the water is in a closed loop and runs through a series of small tubes in the cooling tower to release heat.
The main reason to service a cooling tower is to get the most value out of the equipment youve purchased. A well-functioning cooling tower can also lower HVAC energy consumption in your commercial building. A cooling tower isnt cheap, and it needs regular maintenance to perform to its full potential. Lack of maintenance can shave years off the life of your cooling tower and cause expensive repairs and premature replacement.
While its one of the most important things to maintain, cooling tower maintenance isnt necessarily on the top of the list. Sometimes, other equipment like chillers take the attention of the maintenance team. Chillers also use much more energy than cooling towers, so some maintenance teams may spend more time working on chiller efficiency at the expense of improving cooling tower efficiency.
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A poorly maintained cooling tower affects the whole system. Cooling towers get dirty. Located on the roof, they are open to dirt, pollen, insects, bird droppings, and anything else that can get swept up into the air. In addition to this, evaporating water in the tower leaves behind magnesium and calcium scale buildup. Rust, scale, and dirt can prevent cooling towers from cooling water effectively.
Dirty cooling towers also give the Legionella bacteria a home to grow. As water in the tower turns to mist, it can carry the bacteria and infect people nearby. Maintenance teams will use protective equipment to minimize health risks during cleaning. But, if you have a particularly dirty cooling tower, anyone on the roof walking close enough to the tower may be in danger of inhaling mist or spray with Legionella.
Various states and cities have requirements for water testing to limit the spread of Legionella. For example, New York requires cooling tower owners to take a general bacteriological sample every 30 days and a Legionella culture sample at least every 90 days. ASHRAE Guideline 12 provides detailed information for bacterial testing and control.
For these reasons, in addition to maintenance and inspections, we also suggest a robust water treatment plan for your cooling tower. Effective water treatment can virtually eliminate deposit build-up as well as prevent Legionella from becoming a problem. At Spaeder, we offer water testing and treatment for minerals, PH levels, as well as Legionella.
Cooling tower fill facilitates heat transfer as it allows incoming warm water to disperse and mix with cool air. The material is designed to increase the surface area and contact between air and water. It looks like a block of honeycomb material with hundreds of channels for water to run through. If you have an open cooling tower design, you can see the fill directly on the sides of the tower.
With good maintenance, you shouldnt have to replace the fill for at least 10 to 15 years. However, scale buildup on fill is common, so youll need to have professionals carefully clean the fill with each annual or semi-annual maintenance. Cooling tower fill can have small or large channels depending on the application. Generally, the dirtier the water, the larger the channels to minimize buildup and clogs.
There are a few things your building maintenance crew can do each week or month. These include checking for anything out of the ordinary like loud noises or vibrations coming from the pumps and motors, checking screens for debris, checking belts for wear and tear, and treating the chemical composition of the water.
More in-depth cooling tower maintenance happens every six to twelve months depending on the condition of your water and the load on the cooling tower. Its important to bring in a professional cooling tower maintenance team for this. Annual maintenance often requires a technician to get inside the unit through manhole access points. The power to the unit must be shut off and the water flow halted or redirected to a backup, as well.
A cooling tower maintenance team will start by removing screens, fill, and eliminators to clean them off. They will do a full cleaning of the inside of the cooling tower and remove any buildup of scale or sludge. Theyll also inspect motors for wear and grease them up. Cooling towers can collect a lot of dust and scale, so you dont want to neglect a full clean and inspection of the cooling tower each year.
Besides regular maintenance, there are other ways you can get more life out of your cooling tower. For example, a coat of epoxy to the basin can reduce corrosion and prevent leaks. You can have this done later in the systems lifetime and get more years out of the equipment, as well.
You can also get a filtration system that constantly circulates the water in the basin and prevents some of the buildup of grime and debris. Instead of collecting at the bottom, dust and grime would get swept off to the filtration intake and filtered out. The clean water is then pumped back into the system. Of course, adding a filtration system like this requires an additional cost.
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