Of course you can always rely on it the fact that any specialist in refrigeration devices can render assistance to you when it`s time and you need to choose a small chiller but a large commercial one that will sort your needs. However, it is always better to know a little more than what chillers are designed to chill. Being well informed about these units, their structure and operation will help you and the consulting shop assistant focus on your needs. Or if you already own one this knowledge is important to you to comprehend what type of chillers you have and how to maintain it.
A chiller is a refrigeration device that is designed to cool water. This is the main way of cooling in a complex climate system. There are units that operate only for cooling as well those that can also work as thermal pumps (bidirectional, double-acting chillers).
The core cold generators are usually fan coil units (simple devices consisting of a heating or a cooling coil and a fan) and central air-conditioners. The chiller is connected to them by means of tubing and a pumping station.
Types of chillers
The basic categories that classify these refrigeration devices are established according to their cooling and connection characteristics.
- outdoor air-cooled chillers
- indoor air-cooled chillers
- air-cooled chillers with detachable condenser
- water-cooled chillers (connected to water-cooling tower or natural running water reservoir)
Each of the basic types mentioned above can vary due to the type of compressor they have and other various configurations used.
Central air conditioning system
Chillers are used almost in every sphere of life nowadays , but they are extremely popular with central air conditioning systems for larger buildings. The chiller unit with fan coil system allows independent and free temperature regulation in a great number of premises at the over the same period of time. In this case the chiller is a source of the cold in the system; it cools the water flowing through the tubing. The latter is used to control the temperature in the space where they are installed in, they can change their performance very quickly so are very flexibly in operation.
This kind of central air conditioning system is used in large buildings such as office centres, hotels, hospitals, shopping malls, hypermarkets and large residential buildings, where there is need to regulate temperature in various separate premises.
Such air conditioning system offers a nice flexibility in air-conditioning of a great number of separate premises. One chiller can be connected to a bulk of fan coil units and heat exchangers offering central air-conditioning or air- supply ventilation across the complete platform. Each consumer can virtually act separately from each other and change the mode of operation to on or off as required. The chiller and fan coil units are not limited by distance and their performance is determined by pumping station and tubing heat insulation capacity. If properly maintained according to the given instructions all types of quality chillers will serve well and last for a good number of years before needing replacement.