Optimising the Number of Pumps and Balancing Valves in Chilled Water Distribution Systems

Everyday life does involve use of cooling systems for different areas and scenarios. We use them to keep our thermal comfort level at optimum, either to get rid of some extra heat from technological systems. From various cooling solutions, one and very common system is the chilled water system, where centralised chiller plants produce the cooling energy and all terminal units do receive cooling energy using a distribution loop. According to statistical data, electrical energy consumption of pumps might be up to 17% of entire electrical use of the cooling plant. When designing our cooling system loads during operation will not be same all the time. Variation must be treated accordingly, therefore to get best efficiency of the system, we must get a good control. Beside shut-off motorised valves our balancing must be considered in different scenarios. The paper looks to summarize the challenges in getting a good balancing and energy efficiency in chilled water distribution system.