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Condenser load for water cooled chillers

Condenser load for water cooled chillers

Condenser load for water cooled chillers

(OP)
Through my experience, the condenser section of a chiller is always larger and thus has more gpm and load. Is it a general rule of thumb that the condenser load in tons is always 25% greater than the evaporator load in tons? Is their a standard to this? At my plant which has 500-Ton, 1000-Ton, and 2000-Ton chillers the design condenser water gpm is 25% greater than the chilled water gpm. Just curious if this is a standard for all water cooled chillers...

RE: Condenser load for water cooled chillers

That figure is based on chiller efficiency and the delta-T of both condenser and evaporator. If your chillers are reasonably efficient (say, 0.65 kW/T), and the delta-T of both evaporator and condenser are the same, then 25± percent is an okay number. Probably pretty common.

I'm looking at one right here, though, with 0.56 kW/Ton, 10°F delta T condenser and 15°F delta T on the evaporator. Condenser water flow is 3250 GPM and evaporator flow is 2000 GPM, so condenser is 63 percent greater than evaporator.

Best to you,

Goober Dave

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RE: Condenser load for water cooled chillers

The condenser must reject the heat load from the evaporators + compressor work.

The "rule of thumb" is that the amount of compressor work is readily available in the chiller manufacturer's technical data.

RE: Condenser load for water cooled chillers

First law of thermo, water is cooled in the chiller.....evaporator
Second law of thermo, heat rejected cooling the water will be larger than the cooling effect, ie, entropy increases......condenser

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