All About Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC)

This brief guide is about heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, often abbreviated to HVAC. The cooling towers used in heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems are primarily used to dispose or reject to atmosphere any unwanted heat generated from a chiller or cooling system.

Water-cooled HVAC chillers are typically more energy efficient than their air-cooled counterparts due to the method of heat rejection using tower water at or near wet-bulb temperatures.

Air-Cooled Chillers for HVAC Systems

Air-cooled chiller systems work by rejecting the unwanted heat at an elevated dry-bulb temperature, and so have a lower average effectiveness. In areas with a hot climate, data centres, large office buildings, hospitals, schools, hotels and other high demand facilities typically use one or more cooling towers as part of their air conditioning systems. Generally, industrial cooling towers are much larger than HVAC towers because of the cooling demand required and the amount of heat generated by industrial and process systems.

Cooling Towers

Cooling towers are also used in HVAC systems that have multiple water source heat pumps that share a common water system. In this type of common water system, the water circulating inside the loop removes heat from the condenser of the heat pumps whenever the heat pumps are working in the cooling mode. The cooling towers, which are usually located externally are then used to remove the unwanted heat from the water loop and expel it to the atmosphere.

Tower Shut Down & Decommissioning

When the heat pumps are operating in a heating state, the condensers will take heat from the water and use it to provide a source of heating for the space inside a building. When the water loop is being used primarily to supply heat to a building in this way, cooling towers are usually temporarily decommissioned or mothballed, and space heating is delivered by other means, usually by some form of boile

World Class HVAC & Cooling Tower Solutions

Water Treatment Services is a leading independent UK water and wastewater treatment, air, energy and environmental services company offering expert water management solutions including HVAC and cooling tower water treatment, industrial wastewater treatment, energy efficiency and engineering support services.

With offices in London serving the South and South East England, Manchester (North West), Birmingham (Midlands), Bristol (South East England and Wales), Leeds (North and North East) and Glasgow (Scotland), supported by regional teams of specially trained engineers, site service specialists and technical experts we can offer water management solutions across the whole of the UK.

Contact us today to learn how our cooling tower water management and engineering solutions can help you.