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Should You Use Chilled Water Cooling? Questions and Answers to Help You Decide

10 April 2017 by Benjamin Rice

If you're thinking about putting a new cooling system in your residential, business or industrial facility, you may be wondering if a chilled water system is right for you. To help you decide, here's a look at some questions and answers about these systems.

1. How Do Chilled Water Systems Work?

Chilled water cooling systems work based on a relatively simple design. Water travels through chilled (usually insulated) pipes that run throughout your building. As the water travels through the pipes, it periodically goes through coils. The coils absorb heat from the outside air, and in turn, the water absorbs that heat. Eventually, the water goes back through a main chiller, and there, the water is chilled again. At that point, the cycle repeats itself.

2. Do You Need Extra Equipment?

When you put in a chilled water system, you need the insulated pipework, the chiller, coils and other components that are directly involved with the system. However, you may also want to support the chilled water system with other HVAC equipment. For example, if you have a room of computers, that room may need additional cooling on top of what the chilled water system provides. An installer can help you assess your cooling needs in all areas of your facility and guide you toward the right setup.

3. Do Chilled Water Systems Use Ducts?

These systems do not rely on ductwork, and if you don't have duct work currently in your facility, that makes you an ideal candidate for chilled water cooling. These systems don't require you to add complicated ductwork. Instead, the installer just has to run flexible chilled water pipes throughout the facility. If you already have ductwork, but are tired of cleaning and maintaining it, you may want to forgo that system and switch to a chilled water set up.

4. Can You Make Chilled Water Systems More Efficient?

Chilled water systems are inherently efficient because you can set them up to chill various parts of your facility independently. That allows you to reduce wasted cooling on areas you aren't using. However, you can make these systems even more efficient by connecting them to digital, programmable controls.

5. How Do You Handle Repairs?

There are multiple repairs that you may need to turn over to a professional, but in cases where you just need to replace the pipework, you can hire a pipe freeze machine. These machines freeze the water in the pipe so that it doesn't run into the part of the pipe that you are repairing or replacing. Then, when everything is fixed, you unfreeze the water and let it run as usual.

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