Celtictussle t1_iueru1p wrote on October 30, 2022 at 7:49 PM

Reply to comment by Klai8 in ELI5 Why are airport ceiling so high? by TrShry

How do the chilled water systems work?

scaryjobob t1_iuf5jgz wrote on October 30, 2022 at 9:21 PM

Like the water cooling in a PC, but instead of pumping water to your components to carry the heat away, it's pumping it to air handlers that cycle the air to cool it down.

Floodtoflood t1_iuhat86 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 10:01 AM

Air handlers handle air like the name says (they cool or heat air and then blow it where you need it through duct work). The cooling of the water is done by a chiller and the resulting heat would be dissipated by a cooling tower or heat pump.

eerun165 t1_iuf6fho wrote on October 30, 2022 at 9:27 PM

Water is cooled with a chiller, and pumped to FCU (fan coil units, basically a heat exchanger with a fan). The FCU blows air through its coil as the cooled liquid is pumped through the coil, the water absorbs heat, cooling the air. The heat then returns via the chilled water system to the chiller to be cooled again and go back out.

The chiller is a mechanical system using refrigerants to cool the liquid. The other output of the chiller is heated water, which then typically goes to a cooling tower (basically another heat exchanger) water flows through the tower as a fan pulls ambient outdoor air, which removes heat from that portion to go back and cool the chiller.

Shurgosa t1_iufg2yw wrote on October 30, 2022 at 10:34 PM

How interesting that today is the day I finally revisit my FCU map update project at work and shit all the info into one document. We have like 20 of these goddamn things all scattered around the building in storage rooms, and areas that are surrounded by stairwells that seem to tie themselves into knots. The current maps being used are photocopied blueprints from the 1980s marked up with a highlighter.

Dirty_Hertz t1_iufyq6b wrote on October 31, 2022 at 12:54 AM

Oh, I love those. I had some recent record drawing projects where I only had scanned ancient BS like you said and a set of survey markups from a guy who couldn't write to save his life. Couldn't tell the difference between 3, 5, or 8. They all looked the same!