If yes, you're likely among the utility and maintenance managers who understand that preventive chiller maintenance — from keeping a daily record of chiller output to deploying the most innovative maintenance solutions — yields optimum efficiency and meaningful energy savings in a short time.
Chillers are the single largest individual user of electricity in commercial and institutional HVAC facilities.
The performance of heat exchangers deteriorates over time due to the accumulation of deposits, biological growth, and corrosion on heat transfer surfaces. It's estimated that a build-up of just a 0.6mm thick layer of fouling on condenser water tubes will reduce chiller efficiency by a minimum of 20%.
As fouling builds up in a condenser, the condensing temperature and subsequent power consumption increase while the unit's cooling capacity decreases. At some point in the operating cycle, the increased cost of power is offset by the cost of cleaning.
The modern alternative for round-the-clock chiller tube cleaning is an automatic tube cleaning system — a method that cleans heat exchanger tubes while the equipment remains in full operation. This online method periodically infuses slightly oversized elastomer balls into the condenser tubes, keeping them free of fouling 24×7. A strainer or ball collector installed at the water piping exit collects the balls for re-circulation, so there's no need for a system shutdown to descale — and the chiller keeps operating at top performance and efficiency.
An automatic tube cleaning system like ACCS™ delivers up to 30% energy savings for the organisation.