This article will discuss the instrumentation typically found in cooling systems and other plant utility systems, what other instruments and gauges should be used, how the instrumentation should be used, and good maintenance practices for instrumentation.

Evaporative condensers are an efficient and cost-effective heat rejection solution for various applications—food and beverage refrigeration, industrial machinery cooling, and HVAC. The units work by condensing superheated refrigerant vapor inside a coil that is continually sprayed with water.  As the water evaporates, fans reject the heated water vapor to the atmosphere.  By lowering system condensing temperatures, evaporative condensers reduce compressor horsepower requirements, resulting in energy savings of up to 15% when compared to air-cooled systems.

This is a two-part article looking at factors impacting decisions on whether to use air or water-cooled air compressors. It also provides heat recovery guidelines for both situations. Part 2 will provide a review of alternative cooling water system options and their approximate operating costs.

The need for cooling capacity is increasing globally. An expanding population and an ever-growing dependence on data increases the need for process cooling, centralized space cooling, and data center cooling. Meanwhile, in many places, water scarcity is a massive issue. In conventional, industrial cooling applications, the use of water for heat rejection is critical. Cooling towers and most evaporative fluid coolers depend heavily on water to reject waste heat to the atmosphere.