How Refrigerators work then and now

Process Chillers may come as a foreign term to many of you. This is because it is often only used formally. There are different types of chillers out there and the most common of all is one item that is essential to our everyday living: the refrigerator.

The refrigerator is an air cooled chiller that allows us to chill or freeze things to lengthen their shelf life. But refrigerators back then and now did not follow the same process. 

REFRIGERATORS (then):

At the back of a refrigerator, there’s a long thin tube that goes in loop. This tube is connected to the pump powered by an electric motor. Inside this tube is Freon which is a type of gas but is also known chemically as Chloro-Floro-Carbon or better known as CFC. CFC’s start out in liquid form and are pumped through the coils in the freezer area. Here, the liquid turns to gas and when it does, it absorbs some of the heat that’s in the freezer compartment. This is the reason why air cooled chiller’s freezers are super cold and filled with ice all around especially for used chillers that haven’t been cleaned. The pump sucks the CFC gas and passes it through the thinner pipes located outside the refrigerator and compresses it. The process of compression turns the gas back into liquid form and heat is given off. This is the reason why it’s hot when you stand next to your refrigerator. They cycle continues inside this process chiller.

REFRIGERATORS (now):

Because CFC’s were harmful to the atmosphere if they leak out of refrigerators, manufacturers had to find a way to do away with it. Hence, modern day air cooled chillers use HFC chemically known as tetrafluoroethane. This type of gas turns to liquid if it is cooled to -15.9 degrees Fahrenheit. The process all starts with a motor and compressor that squeezes the HFC and gas heats up. As it cools, HFC turns to liquid. The liquid then flows through a tiny hole called the expansion valve. There is a low-pressure are between the valve and the compressor because the compressor is pulling ammonia gas out of that area. When HFC gets to this area, it vaporizes and turns to gas. The coils go through the freezer and the colder liquid in them pulls heat out of the compartments, leaving freezers super cold. The compressor then sucks up the cold gas and the cycle continues.

Refrigerators in the earlier days are different from how refrigerators work nowadays. The difference may be subtle but the overall effect is huge.

How process chillers can save water

How do industrial chillers save water? Well, with global warming becoming more and more apparent, a little effort in saving our environment goes a very long way. One natural resource in particular that we’re nearly running out of is water. If we don’t take care of it, we’ll lose it. Thus, saving water is of primary importance right now.

A large amount of water is used in different industrial purposes all over the world. Because of this and the desperate pleas for our environment’s survival, industries are now looking for ways to cut back the waste.

An example of an industry that uses a lot of water is a hospital. Sterilization is a key aspect in a hospital’s day to day activities. Instruments and equipments must be sterilized to ensure safety and health. However, large amounts of water are needed to cool the sterilizer and these amounts usually end up in waste after used.

Instead of wasting too much water on that, you can use process chillers. These chillers take hot water from the condensers and vacuum pump. They then cool it down and pump it right back to the sterilizer. Process chillers also help keep the cycling time of sterilizers constant regardless of different weather conditions. If your chillers have large buffer tanks, there are no negative effects even if there’s an extreme change in temperature. Switching to industrial chillers prove to save a lot of money and water at the same time. With the right chiller maintenance, your chillers will last longer than you thought.

Chiller Efficiency and Maintenance

If your company owns one of those industrial chillers to help maintain various equipments that may be damaged from too much heat, then you’d probably know that chiller maintenance don’t come easy.

A chiller can only be beneficial if its efficiency is at its maximum or remain to be unaffected despite several factors.

A chiller’ efficiency is measured by the amount of energy it needs or it takes to produce a ton of cooling and is usually expressed as kw/ton. All types of chillers including air cooled chillers and water cooled chillers have certain efficiency established before being released out in the market. However, there are a lot of factors that can affect it which can result to poor efficiency and higher operating costs.

An industrial chiller can have an operator to better keep track of the activities. The operators are known by a few titles: Stationary Engineer, HVAC engineer or service technician. Nevertheless, they perform the same job: they watch over the chillers. Chiller operation includes collecting and logging data from different estimates and controls the meters near or on the chiller. There are also service contractors whose expertise is the equipment repair. They are the ones you must call when you need major repairs.

There are three types of chiller maintenance:

Water chemistry – keeps the proper balance and minimizes the effects of corrosion, and debris fouling.Mechanical Maintenance – includes adequate liquid refrigerant, proper lubrication and a series of oil levels and pump curve tests.Operational Procedures – includes calibration of gauges and meters, oil analysis and other different tests that checks the operation process.

Chillers must be maintained and kept well for a longer lifespan. They don’t come cheap so taking care of them is worth the extra years they give as service before they break down.

Taking Care of You Chiller Unit

If you own a water cooled chiller or any other chiller unit, then for sure you want it to run at its best. In keeping up with your chiller maintenance you will extend the life of your chiller and will also help keep the amount of money to run the unit down. Not having the right maintenance can have its consequences. The machine can start to rust sooner than you expect and you’ll end up spending more money repairing it than having it checked out every few months.

Keeping a daily log on how the recirculating chiller is running is one thing you can do to make sure that the unit is running smoothly. In the long run, doing this can also make you save money because it gives you a basis of how the chiller normally works and this is also good because if something starts to go wrong with the machine, then you would know about it before the chiller breaks down. This is especially important if you purchased a used chiller.

Something else you can do to ensure that your industrial chiller will be running its best is to make sure that all the wiring is efficient and up to date. Old wiring can cause your electricity bill to surge and giving attention to this can also confirm that there are no kinks in the wiring and that the wires are not all tangled up. Purchasing a chiller that’s just the right size can keep your cost down as well. It’s a common thing for people to buy the wrong type of chiller and this can cause the chiller’s life to shorten.

Taking note of simple things like this can help you in maintaining a good chiller. J5NPHMMXKQBD