This article was published in ASHRAE Journal, September 2011.

Copyright 2011 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning

Engineers, Inc. Posted at www.ashrae.org. This article may not be copied and/or distributed electronically or in paper form without permission
of ASHRAE. For more information about ASHRAE Journal, visit www.ashrae.org.

Optimizing Design & Control

Of Chilled Water Plants
Part 2: Condenser Water System Design
By Steven T. Taylor, P.E., Fellow ASHRAE

his is the second of a series of articles discussing how to optimize the

design and control of chilled water plants. The series will summarize

ASHRAEs Self Directed Learning (SDL) course called Fundamentals of

Design and Control of Central Chilled Water Plants and the research
that was performed to support its development. See sidebar, Page 36
for a summary of the topics to be discussed. The articles, and the SDL
course upon which it is based, are intended to provide techniques for
plant design and control that require little or no added engineering
time compared to standard practice but at the same time result in sig-

nificantly reduced plant life-cycle costs.

A procedure was developed to provide
near-optimum plant design for most chiller plants including the following steps:
1. Select chilled water distribution
system.
2. Select chilled water temperatures,
flow rate, and primary pipe sizes.
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ASHRAE Journal

3. Select condenser water distribution

system.
4. Select condenser water temperatures, flow rate, and primary pipe sizes.
5. Select cooling tower type, speed control option, efficiency, approach temperature, and make cooling tower selection.

6. Select chillers.
7. Finalize piping system design, calculate pump head, and select pumps.
8. Develop and optimize control sequences.
Each of these steps is discussed in this
series of five articles. This article discusses Step 3: designing the condenser
water distribution system. Steps 2 and 4
will be discussed in the next article.
Three common piping arrangements
for condenser water pumps are:
Option A: Dedicate a pump for each
condenser (Figure 1a);
Option B: Provide a common header
at the pump discharge and two-way automatic isolation valves for each condenser (Figure 1b); and
Option C: Provide a common header with normally closed (NC) manual
isolation valves in the header between
pumps (Figure 1c).
The advantages of dedicated pumps
for each condenser (Option A) include:
About the Author
Steven T. Taylor, P.E., is a principal at Taylor
Engineering in Alameda, Calif.

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September 2011

Cooling
Tower
No. 1

Cooling
Tower
No. 2

Cooling
Tower
No. 3

C
Cooling
Tower
No. 1

Cooling
Tower
No. 2

Cooling
Tower
No. 3

Cooling
Tower
No. 1

Cooling
Tower
No. 2

Cooling
Tower
No. 3

Chiller No. 1
Chiller No. 1

CHW Pump
No. 1

CHW Pump No. 1

Chiller No. 2

CHW Pump
No. 1

Chiller No. 3

CHW Pump
No. 2

CHW Pump
No. 2

CHW Pump No. 2

Chiller No. 3

Chiller No. 1
Chiller No. 2

CHW Pump
No. 3

CHW Pump No. 3

Optional
Standby Pump

N.C.
Chiller No. 2
N.C.
Chiller No. 3

CHW Pump
No. 3

Figure 1: Condenser water pump piping options. Option A (left): Dedicated pumps. Option B (center): Headered pumps with condenser auto-isolation valves. Option C (right): Headered pumps with manual isolation valves.
1. The pump can be custom-selected for the condenser it
serves. Pump selection can then account for variations in
condenser pressure drop and flow rates when chillers are not
identical. This can reduce pump energy compared to Option B
where the head of each pump must be the same and sized for
the condenser with the highest pressure drop; balance valves
at the other condensers must be throttled to generate this same
pressure drop.
2. Controls are a bit simpler because the pump can be controlled using the contact provided with the chiller controller.
This ensures that the pump starts and stops when the chiller
wants it to. With Option B, the control of the isolation valves
and pumps is by the direct digital control (DDC) system and
must be coordinated with the needs of the chiller controller to
avoid nuisance trips. For instance, the pumps generally must
run for several minutes after the command for the chiller to stop
so that the chiller can pump down the refrigerant.
3. Pump failures do not cause multiple chiller trips. With
dedicated pumps, if a pump fails, only the chiller it serves will
see a flow disruption and trip. With Option B, all operating
chillers will see a flow reduction when a pump fails, possibly
causing more than one chiller to trip due to low flow or high
refrigerant head. However if there is a lag or standby pump
with Option B that can be started quickly, trips can usually be
avoided because it takes some time for refrigerant head to rise.
The advantages of headered (manifolded) pumps (Option
B) include:
1. Redundancy is improved. With Option A, if a pump fails
and a chiller other than the one it serves also fails (albeit a
rare event), then two chillers will be inoperative. With Option
B, any pump can serve any chiller and under many conditions
one pump can provide enough flow for two chillers to operate
near full capacity.
September 2011

2. Including a standby pump is much simpler. Adding a

standby pump to Option A is cumbersome and expensive because
it requires extensive piping and manual or automatic isolation
valves. If standby pumps are desired, Option B is the best option.
3. Isolation valves can double as head pressure control valves.
See discussion on head pressure control later. For Option A,
head pressure control would require the addition of variable
speed drives on condenser water pumps or tower bypass valves.
4. It is easier to integrate a water-side economizer. See
discussion on waterside economizers below. Since waterside
economizers are only operational in cold weather when loads
are generally low, the condenser water side can use one (or
more) of the condenser water pumps serving chillers rather than
providing a dedicated pump. This reduces first costs.
Headered pumps with manual isolation valves (Option C)
can have the advantages of Option A (although it works best
with identical chillers) and it overcomes the redundancy disadvantage of Option A but accommodating a pump failure
requires manual manipulation of valves vs. the automatic
response in Option B. Including a standby pump is possible
with Option C but it only works (depending on which pump
fails) with the header isolation valves open and chillers must be
staged by manually opening and closing their isolation valves.
First costs are usually lowest with Option A if the chiller and
pump pairs are close-coupled and the manual isolation valves
between the two are eliminated (each chiller-pump pair is isolated for service as a pair). Option C is usually less expensive
than Option B, but Option B is usually the best choice where
head pressure control and standby pumps are required.

Refrigerant Head Pressure Control

All chillers will require a minimum refrigerant head (lift)
between the evaporator and condenser. This can be quite high
ASHRAE Journal

27

B
Cooling
Tower
No. 1

Cooling
Tower
No. 2

Cooling
Tower
No. 3

C
Cooling
Tower
No. 1

Cooling
Tower
No. 2

Cooling
Tower
No. 3

Cooling
Tower
No. 1

Cooling
Tower
No. 2

Cooling
Tower
No. 3

Figure 2: Cooling tower cell isolation options. Option A (left): Weir dams and/or low flow nozzles. Option B (center): Autoisolation valves on supply only. Option C (right): Auto-isolation valves on supply and suction.
for most screw chillers and some hermetic centrifugal chillers, and very low for magnetic bearing chillers, which have no
oil return considerations. There are two common reasons why
low refrigerant head pressure can occur:
At start-up when water temperature in the cooling tower
basins is cold. Some chillers can operate for a short period of
time with low start-up head while others will trip on low head
pressure safeties almost immediately. To determine if head
pressure control is required, for cold starts, consult with the
chiller manufacturer.
When integrated waterside economizers are used (discussed later). Head pressure control is almost always mandatory since cooling tower water temperatures are deliberately
kept very cold for long periods.
Options to avoid low head pressure problem include:
Tower three-way bypass valves. The bypass water is diverted around the tower fill into the cooling tower sump or
into the suction piping, thus avoiding natural cooling that occurs across the tower fill even when tower fans are off. Piping
the bypass to the suction line also avoids the mass of water
in the basin for an even faster warm-up, but the design can
be problematic: unless the bypass line is balanced to create a
pressure drop equal to the height of the cooling tower, air will
be drawn into the system backwards from the spray nozzles
since piping above the basin will fall below atmospheric pressure. For staged or variable condenser water flow systems, the
bypass must be balanced at the lowest expected flow rate. This
creates a high pressure drop and reduced flow if more pumps
operate, but reduced flow is acceptable when the intent of the
bypass is to raise head pressure. The bypass valve is controlled
by supply water temperature typically with a low limit setpoint
well below the normal setpoint used to control tower fan on/
off and speed. Tower bypass is most commonly used where
towers must operate in very cold weather to avoid freezing
in the fill. The following two options are less expensive and,
therefore, preferred in other applications.
For systems with dedicated condenser water pumps (Option A or C, Figure 1), variable speed drives on the pumps can
be used to reduce water flow to the chiller. Head pressure can
be maintained even with very cold supply water as long as
the flow rate can be reduced so that the condenser refrigerant
pressure can be high enough (head pressure depends on the
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ASHRAE Journal

condenser water temperature leaving the chiller, not entering

the chiller). Pump speed can be controlled by the temperature
leaving the condenser at a setpoint that corresponds to minimum condenser pressure, or (preferably) by a signal from the
chiller controller indicating head pressure needs; most chiller
controllers have an analog output dedicated for this purpose.
For systems with headered pumps (Option B, Figure 1), the
isolation valves can double as head pressure control valves by
converting them from two-position to modulating. Valve position
is typically controlled by the chiller controller head pressure control analog output, either directly or through the DDC system.
This signal will close the valve when the chiller shuts off.
The second two options mentioned previously reduce flow
through the condenser. Many engineers are concerned that
low condenser water flow will contribute to fouling of the condenser tubes, but there is little definitive evidence to support
the concept that high velocity keeps tubes clean; strainers and
sidestream filters that prevent particles from entering the condenser in the first place are preferred. But even if this is an issue, for most head pressure control applications there are few
hours at reduced flowonly during cold startsso the impact
on tube fouling should not be significant. Low flow through
the cooling tower may also be an issue (see discussion later)
but, again, it should not be given the short duration.

Minimum Flow Rates

When water enters the cooling tower, it is distributed uniformly across the fill through spray nozzles via a piping header or gravity distribution basin. Each cell has a minimum flow
rate to ensure that tower fill is fully wetted along the face of
the air entering the fill. If there are dry spots along this face,
air will bypass the wetted fill due to lower pressure drop and,
more importantly, cause scale to build up at the boundary between the wet and dry fill as water is evaporated and dissolved
solids remain. So it is important to maintain minimum tower
cell flow rates, particularly in areas with hard makeup water.
In plants with multiple cooling towers and chillers, it is
desirable to operate one condenser water pump at low loads,
which will reduce the flow rate through cooling towers. Options for maintaining minimum flow rates (Figure 2) include:
Option A: Select tower weir dams and/or nozzles to allow
one pump to serve all towers. For systems with two or three
a s h r a e . o r g

September 2011

tower cells, this can eliminate the need for isolation valves,
which cost much more than the weir dams and nozzles. This
option is also the most efficient; tower energy use is minimized by operating as many cells as possible, particularly
when tower fans are controlled by variable speed drives.
This is because fan speed is reduced (reducing fan power
by almost the cube of the speed) and cooling is achieved
through tower cells even when fans are off. With most manufacturers and tower types, nozzles and dams are available
to reduce flow by 50%, and many can go down to 33% or
even 25% depending on the selection and design flow rate.
Because of low cost and high efficiency, this option should
always be the first choice. When a plant has many tower
cells and automatic isolation valves are unavoidable, the
dams and nozzles should still be selected to allow as many
cells to operate as possible.
Option B: Install automatic isolation valves on supply
lines only. This option uses the equalizer to keep basin levels
between overflow and fill lines and will require that equalizers be oversized from that required by normal duty. For
example, assume there are three tower cells, and only one
is active; supply flow to the others is shut off. But water is
drawn out of all three cell basins since the suction lines have
no automatic isolation valves. The water level in the basin

of the cell that is supplied will rise while the other two basin levels will fall. The difference in the two elevations must
provide enough head for water to transfer from the supplied
cell to the others through the equalizer. If the equalizer is
undersized, water will overflow in the supplied cell, and the
others will be drawn so low that makeup water valves open,
wasting water and water treatment chemicals. There are only
a few inches of elevation difference between the overflow
and fill lines, so it is imperative that the equalizer be properly
sized for this option to work. Another approach is to eliminate the basins at each tower and use a common sump, often
located indoors in cold climates. This avoids the need for
equalizer lines entirely but is much more expensive.
Option C: Install automatic isolation valves on both supply and suction lines. This is usually the most expensive
option since automatic valves are expensive relative to an
incremental increase in equalizer size. This design also increases exposure to a valve failure; an oversized equalizer
line has no failure modes. It also increases the risk of freezing (or increases the energy used by basin heaters) in the
basins of inactive cells in systems that must operate in cold
weather. But this is often the best option when there are
many tower cells that are not located close together (long
equalizer lines).

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29

Cooling
Tower
No. 1

Cooling
Tower
No. 1

Cooling
Tower
No. 2

Cooling
Tower
No. 2

Chiller No. 1

Chiller No. 1

Chiller No. 2

Chiller No. 2

Either Pump
Or Valve
(Not Both)

Plate and Frame

Heat Exchanger

Plate and Frame

Heat Exchanger

Figure 3: Waterside economizer, non-integrated.

Figure 4: Waterside economizer, integrated, primary-secondary.

Piping for Waterside Economizers

Waterside economizers are an alternative to airside economizers. Airside economizers are usually more energy efficient, but they are not always practical and can be much
more expensive. Applications where waterside economizers are often preferred include floor-by-floor air handlers in
a high-rise office building or computer room air handlers
serving a large data center. A waterside economizer uses
cold water generated at the cooling tower to produce chilled
water without, or with reduced, mechanical refrigeration.
This is accomplished by running the cooling towers to
produce water temperatures typically 45F (7C) and less
during periods of low ambient wet-bulb temperatures. The
cold water is pumped through a high effectiveness waterto-water heat exchanger, usually a plate and frame type, to
produce chilled water at temperatures of 50F (10C) or
less. The heat exchanger protects the chilled water system
from the corrosion, dirt and debris typical of open circuit
condenser water.
For detailed design guidance on sizing waterside economizer heat exchangers and flow rates, see Stein.1
Figure 3 shows a non-integrated waterside economizer
where the economizer heat exchanger is piped in parallel
with the chiller evaporators on the chilled water side. This
design allows the economizer to operate only if the chillers are not operating and vice versa; they cannot operate
together. This design was the most common when waterside economizers first became popular in the 80s, but it
is not very efficient and is no longer allowed to be used
by energy standards such as ASHRAE Standard 90.1.2 In30

ASHRAE Journal

Cooling
Tower
No. 1

Cooling
Tower
No. 2

Chiller No. 1

Chiller No. 2

Plate and Frame

Heat Exchanger

Figure 5: Waterside economizer, integrated, primary-only.

stead, waterside economizers must use an integrated piping
arrangement shown in Figure 4 for a primary-secondary
system and Figure 5 for a primary-only system. Integrated
systems, which cost only slightly more than non-integrated
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September 2011

systems, allow simultaneous operation of the chillers and

the economizer because the heat exchanger is piped in series with the chiller evaporators on the chilled water side.
The economizer can provide some pre-cooling of the return
chilled water temperature even if it cannot provide all of the
cooling. This substantially extends the number of hours the
economizer can be operational.
Figure 4 shows two options for how to provide flow
through the heat exchanger. The least expensive option is to
place a two-position valve in the chilled water return line.
The valve closes when the economizer is enabled and is
open otherwise. This option requires that secondary pumps
have variable speed drives so that they can slow down when
the heat exchanger is out of the circuit and vice versa. The
secondary pumps generally do not need to be sized for the
added head of the heat exchanger since the heat exchanger
will be in the loop only when the economizer is active and
cooling loads (and flows) are low. If secondary pumps are
constant speed (rarely true in modern plants) or if the design
flow rate through the heat exchanger is much lower than the
expected chilled water flow during economizer operation, a
sidestream pump should be used instead of the two-position
valve. This sidestream pump is sized with enough head to

VSD

VSD

Cooling
Tower No. 1

Cooling
Tower No. 2

VSD
Chiller No. 1
VSD
VSD

VSD
Chiller No. 2
VSD

VSD

Figure 6: All-variable speed primary-only chilled water plant.

draw water out of the secondary return, pump it through the
heat exchanger then back to the return.
In both the integrated and non-integrated designs, the
heat exchanger is generally not provided with its own condenser water pumps. Since the load will be low when the
weather is cold enough for the towers to deliver cold water,
it should not be necessary to run all chillers, so one or more
of the chiller condenser water pumps can serve the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger should be selected so that its
pressure drop is similar to the pressure drop across chiller
condensers.
When using waterside economizers, refrigerant head pressure control is required because of the cold water coming off
the cooling tower. See the earlier discussion regarding head
pressure control options.

Variable Speed Condenser Water Pumps

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With the ever-increasing drive to improve plant efficiency, there is more interest in all-variable speed chilled
water plants,3 which refers to plants with variable speed
drives on all components, including condenser water
pumps (Figure 6). It is common to find variable speed
drives on cooling towers and chilled water pumps and, in
fact, they are required with few exceptions by energy standards such as Standard 90.1. Using variable speed drives on

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September 2011

Annual Chilled Water Plant Energy Use (kWh)

chiller compressors is also more and

more common as the cost premium vs.
1.4 Million
fixed speed continues to fall. But variTOPP
able speed drives on condenser water
STD
1.2 Million
pumps are relatively rare, and for good
OAK
reason: it is not clear that they are cost
1 Million
effective and the required control logic
is not self-apparent. For instance, as
800,000
condenser water flow falls, both pump
energy and cooling tower energy (for
the same condenser water supply tem600,000
perature) will fall, but chiller energy
will rise as leaving condenser water
400,000
temperature rises. The condenser leaving water temperature is indicative of
200,000
chiller condensing temperature and,
therefore, chiller efficiency; efficiency
0
will vary little with changes to conChiller
Tower
CHWP
CWP
Plant Total
denser supply water temperature at the
same leaving water temperature. With
variable speed drives on the chiller Figure 7: Denver chilled water plant energy use using three control strategies.
compressor, the impact of condenser
temperature is even stronger and, in fact, these drives will
STD. This is the performance of the plant with constant
save no energy at all if leaving condenser water tempera- speed condenser water pumps and cooling tower fans contures are not driven down at low loads.
trolled to reset supply water temperature per ARI Standard
Clearly the optimum control logic will not be the same 550/5906 condenser water relief curves. This is most indicafor all plants. For instance, a plant with very efficient (high tive of conventional practice.
gpm/horsepower) cooling towers will operate more effi OAK. This is the performance of the plant with variable
ciently by driving condenser water temperatures down fur- speed pumps controlled using control sequences that were
ther than a plant with inefficient towers. So what is the best found to provide near-TOPP level performance for the same
control strategy? The answer is it depends. A few authors plant located in Oakland, Calif., instead of Denver.
have proposed theoretical approaches to determining the
The figure shows that energy use is highest using control
optimum logic,4,5 but the techniques are either difficult and sequences that provided near-ideal performance for the same
time consuming to implement or require proprietary con- plant in another climate zone, significantly higher energy use
trol logic.
than the plant without pump variable speed drives. This demAs part of the development of the ASHRAE SDL refer- onstrates how sensitive plant performance is to the details of
enced earlier, studies were conducted to develop generalized the control logic. So, variable speed drives should only be used
optimum control sequences for all-variable speed plants and on condenser water pumps if the designer takes the time to ento determine life-cycle costs of various design alternatives. sure that control sequences are near-optimum. These sequencOur studies led to two important conclusions about variable es will be discussed in detail in Part 5 of this series of articles.
speed drives on condenser water pumps:
1. They are life-cycle cost effective if optimum control se- Summary
quences are used.
This article is the second in a series of five that summarize
2. They can increase the energy use of the plant if not opti- chilled water plant design techniques intended to help engimally controlled.
neers optimize plant design and control with little or no added
The second conclusion is disturbing, in particular, because engineering effort. In this article, condenser water system pipwe found that the difference was very subtle between the con- ing and distribution system options were discussed. In the next
trol logic that minimized energy use and that which increased article pipe sizing and optimizing T will be addressed.
use above constant speed pumps. For example, Figure 7 shows
energy use for a plant serving an office building in Denver, References
using three control strategies:
1. Stein, J. 2009. Waterside Economizing in Data Centers:
TOPP. This is the theoretical optimum plant performance Design and Control Considerations. ASHRAE Transactions
of the plant with variable speed condenser water pumps deter- 115(2):192200.
mined using the technique described in Reference 5. This is
2. ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2010, Energy Standard for
Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings.
the theoretical best performance possible.
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a s h r a e . o r g

September 2011

Central Chilled Water Plants Series

This series of articles will summarize the upcoming Self

Directed Learning (SDL) course called Fundamentals of
Design and Control of Central Chilled Water Plants and
the research that was performed to support its development. The series includes five segments. Part One: Chilled
Water Distribution System Selection was published in July.
Pipe sizing and optimizing T. This article will discuss
how to size piping using life-cycle costs then how to use
pipe sizing to drive the selection of chilled water and condenser water temperature differences (Ts).
Chillers and cooling tower selection. This article will
address how to select chillers using performance bids and
how to select cooling tower type, control devices, tower
efficiency, and wet-bulb approach.

3. Hartman, T. 2001. All-Variable Speed Centrifugal Chiller

Plants. ASHRAE Journal 43(9):4351.
4. Hartman, T. 2005. Designing Efficient Systems with the Equal
Marginal Performance Principle. ASHRAE Journal 47(7):6470.

Optimized control sequences. The series will conclude

with a discussion of how to optimally control chilled water
plants, focusing on all-variable speed plants.
The intent of the SDL (and these articles) is to provide
simple yet accurate advice to help designers and operators of chilled water plants to optimize life-cycle costs
without having to perform rigorous and expensive life-cycle
cost analyses for every plant. In preparing the SDL, a
significant amount of simulation, cost estimating, and lifecycle cost analysis was performed on the most common
water-cooled plant configurations to determine how best
to design and control them. The result is a set of improved
design parameters and techniques that will provide much
higher performing chilled water plants than common rulesof-thumb and standard practice.

5. Hydeman, M., G. Zhou. 2007. Optimizing Chilled Water Plant

Control. ASHRAE Journal 49(6):4454.
6. ARI Standard 550/590-2003, Performance Rating of Water Chilling Packages Using the Vapor Compression Cycle.

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