A real man's chiller..

[HVAC]

Our chiller here at work..

Trane Low Pressure, centrifugal chiller. Sucks 480V, 800 amps under load. It's set to keep the out going water @ 38F.

Don't know too much about it other than it's big, scary, and holds enough R-123 to kill everyone in our mechanical room.

Now if I can just hook my waterblock up to the output.... hmm

[Silver_Platinum]

Now that is one heck of a chiller. Wonder if I could build one in my room
What is the liquid that is being chilled actually used for?

[Butcher]

Pity a 384kW chiller is a bit much for home users.

[HVAC]

The system pumps cold water around the building for airconditioning.

Inside the compressor looks like a jet engine. Large turbine blades etc..

The total pressure of the system is - 10 psi. Yes, negative pressure. If the evaporator or compressor were to rupture, it would actually suck air in for awhile, then start leaking refrigerant.

R-123 is still a liquid around room temperature, so it must be heated before it can be used in the phase change process.. Weird.

If there ever was a situation were a leak occured and someone was present in the room, the refrigerant would displace all the oxygen and the only way to save th person would be to turn them upside down the let the refrigerant fall from their lungs..

Interesting.

[JWFokker]

R-123 has a boiling point of 24C (74.9F), so couldn't you just keep the room warm? And if they breathed it in, wouldn't it be warm enough then that they could exhale it? Unless of course it's more dense than air.

[freecableguy]

Hahahah.....I play with 4 R-114 compressors that each use 300A at 450VAC....that's ~600kW of cooling power....also used to cool water for airconditioning and other equipment loads.

[redleader]

R-123 is still a liquid around room temperature, so it must be heated before it can be used in the phase change process.. Weird.

? At 10 PSI evaporateing temp is room temp, so why would you need to heat it? Or am I misunderstanding you?

[HVAC]

Originally Posted by redleader

? At 10 PSI evaporateing temp is room temp, so why would you need to heat it? Or am I misunderstanding you?

All of the information I know comes from our HVAC mechanic.. I'm no HVAC man myself.

Credible info or not, I don't know.. Maybe he's just high on refrigerant gas, who knows

The chiller uses 1500LBS of refrigerant, and on normal days run at a pressure of -10 PSI.

R-123 is much more dense than air, that's why SCUBA equiptment is required is there ever is a spill.

If you ever take a look at large building with enclosed mechanical HVAC rooms, there is usually a red/blue light outside of the building.. This is the vapor alarm if the refrigerant systems were to leak. In fact, our system is directly wired to the fire department, so if there is a leak, they are on the scene in minutes..

More info on centrifugal chillers.....

http://www.trane.com/Commercial/home.asp