providing insights for today’s hvac system designer

Engineers Newsletter volume 45–2

waterside economizers
Keeping the "Free" In Free-Cooling
This EN revisits the topic of a 2008
newsletter and provides additional
Identify the Right What if my preferred system can't use
either type of economizer?
discussion about applying and Applications
controlling a waterside economizer. Energy standards and model codes do not
have blanket exceptions for these systems.
The critical first step for a successful However, there are a number of exceptions
There are six basic steps to designing waterside economizer cannot be to consider. For small terminals <54,000
overlooked: identifying the right Btu/h, no economizer is required by ASHRAE
and operating a waterside economizer: Standard 90.1-2013.
applications. Waterside economizers are
• Identify the right application usually less effective at saving energy than Systems with condenser heat recovery may
• Select and size airside economizers. There are simply qualify for an exception. Air-cooled chillers
more heat exchangers between the source serving central equipment can use the
• Determine control points efficiency trade off for equipment (Table 1),
of the free cooling and the cooling load. condenser heat recovery or desuperheaters,
• Protect chiller and tower Each heat exchanger "loses" a few degrees or add a free cooling circuit.
of cooling, the approach temperature. Each
• Predict value of integrated mode Equipment efficiency trade off method
transfer of cooling requires energy-
• Deliver energy savings consuming equipment, such as condenser
ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2010 and later
fans, condenser-water pumps and chilled- provides a new exception for the economizer
In order to deliver energy savings, the water pumps. requirement. The standard back-calculated
system must be designed and an IPLV or IEER improvement by climate
controlled properly. Therefore, it’s critical that we select the zone that would provide equivalent energy
right applications, and intelligently control savings (Table 1).

the system to deliver energy savings. Table 1. ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2013, 6.5.1-3
Climate zone Part load efficiency
There are several reasons for designing a improvement
system to use a waterside economizer. 2A 17%
2B 21%
Sometimes airside economizers are 3A 27%
impractical. In most dedicated outdoor
3B 32%
air systems, the airflow rate is sized for the
minimum, code-required ventilation rate. 3C 65%

Therefore, even if the outdoor air is 4A 42%

suitable for cooling, the system is not 4B 49%
capable of delivering “100% of the design 4C 64%
supply air quantity as outdoor air for
5A 49%
cooling,” as required for airside
5B 59%
economizing by ASHRAE Standard 90.1.
5C 74%
Another constraint could be due to central 6A 56%
mechanical system architectural issues or 6B 65%
preferences.
7 72%
8 77%

© 2016 Trane, a business of Ingersoll Rand. All rights reserved. 1

Sometimes airside economizers are making heat recovery systems work. The temperature (WB), the driving force for the
undesirable. Airside economizer heat rejected by the cooling system water economizer cycle. Figure 1 illustrates
applications that bring in dry air may use offsets the heating required in another the different opportunities for the
more energy if humidification is required. system. The best system would be one waterside economizer cycle. The graphs
ASHRAE Standard 90.1 requires that if that uses the economizer to offset only compare data plots for a hospital and an
spaces are humidified to above 35°F the portion of the cooling load that is not office in climate 4A. The area under the
dewpoint, the systems serving them needed for satisfying the heating load, black line to the left of, say, 50°F WB
must use a water economizer when an commonly called a load-shedding represents the ton-hours that might be
economizer is required. economizer. served or at least partially served by a
Designers of process cooling applications waterside economizer cycle. The office is
such as data centers may have concerns Does a water economizer make sense unoccupied during many of the hours
about the attributes of the air in airside for my application? Carefully consider below 50°F WB, reducing the waterside
economizer mode, or about outdoor air the expected load profile. Offices and economizer savings opportunity. On the
dampers malfunctioning. hospitals are two applications where other hand, the hospital requires more
prototypical load profiles use chilled- ventilation, so its system already brings in
water systems and are available across more outdoor air for a partial airside
Sometimes condenser heat recovery is economizing effect during these cooler
multiple climates. These profiles can be
impractical. Systems with condenser hours of operation.
found in Trane’s myPLV™ or by exporting
heat recovery of sufficient capacity are
TRACE hourly load and weather
given an exception to economizing. The airside economizer opportunity for the
information to a spreadsheet application.
Shedding mechanical cooling when the hospital and office load profiles is
outdoor temperature is cool reduces the Using this data, it is possible to plot summarized in Table 2. This is the free
hours of simultaneous heating and cooling load against the wet-bulb cooling sacrificed when an airside
cooling—conditions that are key to economizer is not used.

Figure 1. Hospital and office cooling and operating hour distribution in zone 4A

hospital 4A office 4A

140000 250
ton-hrs
120000
annual hrs 200
operating hrs
central plant ton-hrs

100000

number of hours
150
80000

60000 100

40000
50
20000

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
outdoor wet- bulb temperature (ºF)

Table 2. Summary of operation and load displaced by airside economizer

climate building type chiller plant load plant annual cooling load airside economizer plant hours
zone without operating offset by airside economizer operating hours displaced with
economizer hours economizer ton-hrs (%) airside econ (%)
(ton-hrs) (ton-hrs)

1A office 2,681,687 5,806 2,601 0.1 55 0.9

2A office 2,020,071 5,022 9,546 0.5 225 4.5

3A office 1,414,396 4,240 12,386 0.9 358 8.4

4A office 1,123,020 4,033 75,286 6.7 995 24.7

5A office 918,012 3,935 97,335 10.6 1,352 34.4

1A hospital 5,547,962 8,760 20,207 0.4 86 1.0

2A hospital 4,628,842 8,759 253,285 5.5 1,412 16.1

3A hospital 3,667,161 8,758 516,296 14.1 2,605 29.7

4A hospital 3,109,749 8,729 683,872 22.0 3,769 43.2

5A hospital 2,635,926 8,596 722,553 27.4 4,426 51.5

2 Trane Engineers Newsletter volume 45–2 providing insights for today’s HVAC system designer
The summary clearly shows that some the usefulness of the cycle. (More on 45°F WB with 50°F DB or less, with no
building types are more conducive than that later in this newsletter.) more than 25 percent load at these
others to either style of economizing, conditions. This is the minimum waterside
most likely as a function of how the How much capacity does my economizer size for meeting code.
ventilation loads and operational hours waterside economizer need?
for the building coincide with outdoor Table 3 displays a pivot table for the Integrate with mechanical cooling.
conditions that are suitable. hospital in climate 4A. Extracting the Section 6.5.1.3 Integrated Economizer
hourly loads and weather into a Control of ASHRAE 90.1 states,
spreadsheet is useful for summarizing
"Economizer systems shall be
Select and Size and visualizing how much load can be
integrated…and be capable of providing
expected at a given wet bulb, and for
partial cooling even when additional
Several styles of waterside economizers how many hours. In this example, there
mechanical cooling is required to meet the
are common. The 2008 EN compared were
remainder of the cooling load"
and contrasted different technologies, • No hours with loads below
system layouts, and control methods for 10 percent at 34°F WB, or There is no definition of how the
waterside economizers. Its conclusions below 15 percent at 42°F WB or integration must happen. Blending two
may be summarized as: higher temperatures of water (a slightly warmer
1 Sidecar position benefits include temperature from the waterside
• No hours with loads above
preferential loading of the economizer with colder water from the
25 percent at 37°F WB or lower
economizer and downstream mechanical cooling chiller) is acceptable
temperature control with chillers, • No hours with loads above though not typically intentionally practiced.
plus potentially less disruptive 30 percent at 45°F WB or lower
transition into and out of waterside The value of this mode is uncertain. Energy
economizer free cooling mode, as These observations will be helpful when simulation software rarely shows a
the chiller downstream will unload or evaluating potential control points for the significant difference between integrated
load to meet setpoint. system. and non-integrated economizer operation.
Regardless of its value, the current model
2 A dedicated free-cooling heat codes require integration. We'll revisit this
Meet the prescriptive requirements in
exchanger has about a 1.5°F closer topic later in this newsletter.
the energy code. Unless exempted,
approach to wet bulb than the
the minimum capacity of the water
integrated thermosiphon chiller. On
economizer is determined by the Determine maximum chilled-water
the other hand, the thermosiphon
expected cooling load at a given outdoor temperature. The amount of cooling that
has lower maintenance, lower first
dry bulb (DB) and WB condition. For can be accomplished by the waterside
cost and likely lower pressure drop
comfort cooling applications these economizer is dependent on the desired
due to the shell-and-tube heat
conditions are 50°F DB/45°WB. chilled-water temperature. Is it the normal
exchanger.
chilled-water setpoint? Or could the
3 Exiting or terminating free cooling Expected load at 50°F DB/45°F WB. system tolerate warmer water? If so, how
waterside economizer mode To meet this requirement, a predicted much warmer?
requires decisions to be made about load profile for the year is necessary. The
example hospital data gave 39 hours at

Table 3. Number of hours by expected load and wet-bulb temperature

cooling total
load outdoor wet bulb temperature
hrs
(%)

27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

5 30 16 16 14 10 6 1 93

10 68 93 124 158 138 152 120 58 61 21 16 15 10 4 2 1040

15 9 12 27 60 62 76 103 103 117 114 105 99 54 70 68 35 33 22 6 2 3 1180

20 2 5 20 25 28 40 30 47 45 60 53 58 47 61 45 57 44 48 42 757

25 4 8 7 12 13 18 30 29 34 39 21 26 24 27 47 339

30 3 2 2 4 14 31 40 41 44 36 30 26 273

40 2 1 4 7 7 21

total 98 118 152 199 208 222 202 181 189 170 178 157 171 118 152 155 136 145 162 115 130 111 112 122 3703
hrs

providing insights for today’s HVAC system designer Trane Engineers Newsletter volume 45–2 3
Some systems that use waterside Figure 2. Effect of load (cooling tower ΔT or range) and wet bulb on tower approach
economizers also use sensible only
equipment such as chilled-beams or radiant 25
cooling. These devices use fairly warm

approach temperature (°F)

range
water for cooling to keep the surface 20
temperature above the space dewpoint to 14 Load and wet bulb have a bigger effect on
avoid unintended condensation. 12 approach in the waterside economizer regime
Conventional systems can also tolerate 15 10
warmer chilled water, especially when 8
loads are low, and when outdoor air is less 10 6
humid—conditions normally expected 4
when the water economizer mode is active.
5

0
Determine Control Points 30 40 50 60 70 80
outdoor wet-bulb temperature (ºF)
Predicting if the system can meet the
current day’s cooling load with the
waterside economizer is roughly two parts moisture as well. Unless the load is quite no flow through isolated tower cell(s)
experience and one part alchemy. low (and it very well may be), the tower may lead to icing.
leaving temperature is, counterintuitively, • Balance condenser-pump energy
Most chilled-water systems with an incapable of getting as close to the lower when tower fans are at minimum
experienced hand at the helm "know" when wet-bulb temperature (Figure 2). speed. If too many cells run at
it will work and when it probably won't. A tower solver spreadsheet tool tuned for a minimum fan speed, the increased
Distilling tribal knowledge into a control given combination of tower and flow condenser pump energy necessary to
algorithm can be a difficult task. The goal is turndown capability can be helpful for achieve sufficient cell water flow limits
to predict what temperature you can get determining control points. the energy savings from tower fans.
out of the cooling tower before driving the
tower fans to full speed and overriding your • Know the maximum flow of the heat
optimal temperature control algorithm for Number of tower cells to operate. The exchanger(s) and the minimum flow of
mechanical cooling. number of tower cells that may operate is a the towers and modify the sequence
relevant variable in tower performance accordingly.
predictions. One method for preventing
Tower performance. To determine if the high tower fan energy in economizer mode
towers can make the water cold enough, Example control points. Table 4
is by flowing through more tower cells. The overlays potential control points on the
without always driving the tower as cold as tower fans are run to the same (hopefully
possible at the expense of fan energy, we load profile from Table 3. The loads cluster
low) speed, and the tower is designed for into three regimes based on wet-bulb
must predict tower performance. Many lower flow.
people erroneously believe that the tower temperature. A tower solver was used to
can or will make a constant approach to estimate performance and determine the
However:
wet bulb. This is simply not true. number of cells to operate at the highest
• If water flow rates are too low the tower expected load for a given wet bulb.
At lower wet-bulb temperatures, ambient may ice or scale, suggesting it would be
air entering the tower doesn't absorb better to turn off a tower cell. However,

Table 4. Hospital expected load at each wet-bulb temperature

cooling
total
load outdoor wet-bulb temperature (°F)
(%) hrs

27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

5 30 16 16 14 10 6 1 93

10 68 93 124 158 138 regime

152 1: 120 58 61 21 16 15 10 4 2
regime 2: regime 3: 1040
all chillers off all chillers off integrated mode
15 9 12 27 60 62 76 103 103 117 114 105 99 54 70 68 35 33 22 6 2 3 1180
1 tower cell 2 tower cells one chiller on
20 45°F tower
2 setpoint
5 20 25 28 40 30 47 47°F tower
45 60 setpoint
53 58 47 61 45 3 tower
57 44 cells
48 42 757
47°F tower setpoint
25 4 8 7 12 13 18 30 29 34 39 21 26 24 27 47 339

30 3 2 2 4 14 31 40 41 44 36 30 26 273

40 2 1 4 7 7 21

total 98 118 152 199 208 222 202 181 189 170 178 157 171 118 152 155 136 145 162 115 130 111 112 122 3703
hrs
4 Trane Engineers Newsletter volume 45–2 providing insights for today’s HVAC system designer
The number of cells operating was Figure 3. Head pressure control method for integrated waterside economizer
considered suitable if, for a given wet bulb
and maximum expected load, the tower condenser pressure
fan was below 100 percent speed, and signal
field- provided (required factory option)
the leaving water temperature was below controller chiller
the maximum leaving chilled-water (if needed) control
temperature setpoint, minus 2-3 degrees panel
of heat-exchanger approach.
valve actuator
Regime 1: All chillers are off, one tower chiller
cell is on and set for 45°F leaving-water to/from 2 butterfly
condenser
valves
temperature, waterside economizer is cooling tower
enabled
condenser
Regime 2: All chillers are off, two tower water pump
cells are on and set for 47°F leaving-water
temperature, waterside economizer is
enabled control, ensure that the minimum periods of time (20 minutes is typically
tower flow rate is always met to acceptable).
Regime 3: Lead mechanical cooling chiller avoid freezing.
is on, three tower cells are open and set There are five methods of head pressure
for 47°F leaving-water temperature, • Condenser bypass is preferred, see control for water-cooled chillers; some
waterside economizer is enabled, chiller next section. are more suitable for systems with
head pressure control as necessary. Once waterside economizers. Figure 1 shows
you start the lead chiller, it’s possible to Plan for chiller head pressure the preferred method; other methods are
add another tower cell. The chiller adds a control. Operating the chiller described and illustrated in several Trane
heat exchanger to the system, so compressor while continuing to drive Engineering Bulletins. Some methods
condenser flow rises enough to support the cooling tower to a colder have drawbacks when used for head
another tower cell's flow. Alternatively, temperature requires a plan for chiller pressure control during integrated
consider a dedicated tower for the lead head pressure control. While it's not waterside economizer mode.
chiller or an air-cooled lead chiller. unique to this application, applications
without waterside economizing may Condenser bypass is the preferred
have fewer hours expected for method for waterside economizer mode,
operation in this condition. as it allows the tower flow rate to remain
Protect Chiller and Tower
high, which provides adequate fill
Careful coordination between the chiller
coverage to prevent icing or deicing, with
Plan for cold towers. The waterside and the system controls is critical
fast-acting head pressure control at the
economizer requires a winterized cooling (watch for scope gap). Many newer
chiller (Figure 3).
tower in many climates. Since the tower chillers have the ability to directly
is expected to operate when it's cold control their own head pressure Tower fan speed, leaving temperature
outside, it cannot be seasonally drained. device—this is preferred. Newer chillers setpoint control simply resets the
also may selectively ignore the tower leaving-water temperature
Use chiller bypass for chiller head condenser flow switch during head setpoint higher when requested by the
pressure control so that the tower flow pressure control mode. And, chillers chiller controller. This is slow acting and
rate can be higher than the condenser must be capable of performing an will be at odds with the waterside
flow rate when needed, for freeze inverted start, defined as having the economizer control points. Use this
protection and proper fill coverage. condenser at a lower pressure than the method for entering and exiting
evaporator. economizer mode, but not for head
Carefully consider the outdoor parts of the
pressure control.
system that are off or isolated from the The controls contractor should be
building load: alerted to the time permitted to achieve Tower bypass may be problematic for
• Use a dry or indoor sump, or use heat the required differential pressure, as not waterside economizer mode, as its
trace and sump heaters all chiller types have the same ability to manage chiller head pressure
requirements. For example, achieving will be constrained by the minimum
• Install heat trace on the make-up differential pressure in a helical rotary required flow rate of the tower. When
water system (screw) chiller must happen in two systems are expected to operate for
• If using tower bypass, throttling minutes. In this type of chiller, oil is more than transient periods of time in
valves, or variable-speed condenser used for creating the compression seal. head pressure mode, tower bypass is
pumps for chiller head pressure Centrifugal chillers are more tolerant of less desirable, though fast acting.
low differential pressures for longer Another problem with this method is that

providing insights for today’s HVAC system designer Trane Engineers Newsletter volume 45–2 5
it is typical to share a common tower Figure 4. Integrated free cooling in November
bypass across all devices, and one or
more of the waterside economizer
47
devices may require higher tower flow 25 free cooling pump (kW)
than the others. condenser water pump
chilled-water pump
cooling tower 45
Throttling valve or variable flow 20 clg equipment electric (kW)

wet-bulb temperature (°F)

condenser pump, when available per
chiller, can have a similar effect as
43
condenser bypass, but may make it 15
difficult to adequately flow the preferred kW outdoor wet bulb
number of tower cells while continuing
41
to meet the head pressure 10
requirements.
39
For all these reasons, condenser bypass 5
and tower speed control are preferred for
waterside economizers.
37
0
10 12 14 16 18

h
Value of Integrated
Economizer Mode tough to pin down as a control point, but integrated mode wins more dramatically
our building models offer guidance. with a variable-speed lead chiller.
Because tower fans, condenser-water
Whether or not to stop waterside pumps and chillers would be at a different In addition, the waterside economizer
economizer if it’s not meeting the operating point than they would have "steals" load from the chiller and drives the
entire cooling load. One of the biggest been, we can’t just look at the chiller-only chiller into a less efficient operating point.
debates that has raged for many years is energy prediction. When load is low, chiller kW/ton is
whether integrated economizer mode relatively high—that is, not very efficient—
actually provides value. The two Consider a fall day while operating in free- even when using a variable-speed
positions can be summarized as: cooling mode (Figure 4). For each hour, compressor. This is because a portion of
• Integrate free and mechanical the right column is the series or the chiller energy is constant. The less
cooling. Code requires it (so it must integrated free cooling alternative. The left work (tons) that it does, the lower the
be the right thing to do), plus it’s easy column is the parallel, all-or-nothing, non- efficiency. Having tower fans operate at
enough to initiate and terminate if integrated free cooling alternative. high speed to continue the cycle, while
the chiller is in series with the the condenser pump and chilled-water
Once the economizer cycle can no longer pump speeds are also high, creates the
waterside economizer device.
meet the entire load (five out of the nine classic example of chasing your tail.
• Energy models and other calculations hours when the plant is operating),
suggest the opposite. Integrated free remaining in economizer mode after This is why integrated and non-integrated
cooling doesn’t usually save much starting the chiller actually uses more economizer mode comparisons defy the
energy, and it complicates the energy than mechanical-only cooling. engineer and energy modeler's
controls on the lead chiller. Either it How can this be? expectations and result in very similar
meets all of the load or it's system annual energy consumption.
discontinued. While chiller energy is reduced in the
integrated mode, tower and pump energy
Based on the model energy codes, increase more than the chiller energy
integrated has won the debate. But decreases, overwhelming any potential Deliver Energy Savings
should it have? All rules should be re- savings. The cooling tower fans,
evaluated occasionally, and we must not economizer pump and condenser-water This brings us to a few final thoughts for
assume that all applications react the pump were higher in the integrated terminating waterside economizer mode.
same way. Data center loads are fairly alternative. What amount of free cooling is worth it?
constant year-round—office loads are Rather than assume that supressing the
not. Even if the need for an economizer pump return water temperature a couple of
were designed out of the system, the degrees is sufficient, understand how the
The key is to know the likely system integrated mode would still use more entire system performs in economizer
efficiency of mechanical (only) cooling energy overall than the non-integrated mode, and identify the alternative system
when the waterside economizer can no alternative. This particular example used a performance in mechanical-cooling mode.
longer meet the entire load. This can be fixed-speed lead chiller. The non-

6 Trane Engineers Newsletter volume 45–2 providing insights for today’s HVAC system designer
Table 5. Chiller plant performance (chiller, tower, all pumps)
References
with chilled-water reset without chilled-water reset
Energy @ 20% plant load CHWSP 49°F, LCWT ~64°F CHWSP 45°F, LCWT ~61°F [1] Hanson, S., "Free Cooling with Waterside
Economizers," Engineers Newsletter, 2008,
fixed-speed chiller and condenser-water 0.758 kW/ton 0.745 kW/ton Trane.
pump, variable-speed tower and chilled-
water pumps [2] Hanson, S., "ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2010:
variable-speed chiller, tower and chilled- 0.451kW/ton 0.440 kW/ton Updates to Mechanical System Mandatory and
water pumps, fixed-speed condenser-water Prescriptive Requirements," Engineers
pump Newsletter, 39-3, 2010, Trane.

[3] Hanson, S., "ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2013 HVAC

and Power Section Highlights," Engineers
A variable-speed lead chiller and its If the goal is to prevent the chiller from Newsletter, 44-1, 2010, Trane.
condenser pump and tower fan(s) cycling on low load, instead of hot-gas
[4] Lindahl, P., "Cold Weather Operation of Cooling
operating at slow speed might use 0.36 bypass, add more load to the chiller by
Towers," ASHRAE Journal, March 2014.
kW/ton. Determine this number and use reducing the load performed by the
it as a yardstick to decide if free cooling waterside economizer. If you're also [5] Schwedler, M., "Effect of Heat Rejection Load
is "free" after all. concerned about the low efficiency at low and Wet Bulb on Cooling Tower Performance."
chiller loads in the integrated mode, ASHRAE Journal, 2014.

Chilled-water reset. By encouraging consider installing thermal storage instead [6] Sullivan, B., "Chiller Selection Made Easier with
extending the economizer mode, the as a first stage of supplemental cooling. myPLV™," Engineers Newsletter, 44-4, Trane
2015.
system effects of chilled-water reset, at
some point, limit the potential energy
savings. Chilled-water reset is a
waterside economizer’s friend, until it Summary
isn't. That point occurs when the chiller Upcoming Trane Engineers
is started and operated in head pressure Designers must evaluate the proper Newsletter LIVE Programs!
control mode. application of waterside economizers and
plan for cold towers, as well as cold
start-up and operation of chillers. Fan Efficiency Regulations and
Release or reduce chilled-water reset Technology Advances. The Air
during head pressure control. When a Movement and Control Association
Warmer climates have fewer hours
chiller is in head pressure control mode, (AMCA) estimates that fans consume
conducive to waterside economizing. The
an excessively warm chilled-water between 30 and 40 percent of
load profile should be considered when
setpoint perpetuates the need for head commercial HVAC energy. Improving fan
deciding if enough ton-hours and operating
pressure control. Releasing or reducing efficiency is an important step towards
hours exist at attractive wet-bulb
chilled-water reset may even save reducing overall building energy use.
temperatures. The equipment efficiency
energy, see Table 5. Delivering colder This program discusses common fan
trade off may be a better option in some
water allows for a reduced chilled-water efficiency metrics, and explains the
cases.
flow rate and therefore reduced chilled- requirements of new regulations and
water pump energy. Due to coil Series arrangement is easier to control industry energy standards. Presenters
dynamics, variable flow systems with without disrupting cooling, but beware of also discuss recent fan technology
two-way valves (that are operating extending the economizer cycle too long. advances, including motorized
properly) should return the same or impellers, direct-drive plenum fans, fan
warmer water to the free-cooling heat Once the chiller starts, integrated free and arrays, optimized motor selection,
exchanger, not the other way around. mechanical cooling may have marginal variable aspect ratio, and vibration
value when mechanical cooling is isolation.
Consider putting a variable-frequency controlled optimally. Release chilled-water
drive on the lead mechanical chiller reset in integrated mode. If the lead
but do not let low chiller loading in Acoustics in HVAC Outdoor
mechanical cooling chiller is variable-speed
integrated economizer mode trigger hot- Applications. This program reviews
and/or high efficiency, terminate
gas bypass installation or operation. This the analysis steps required to avoid
economizer mode sooner.
is false loading and absolutely not the noise complaints caused by outdoor
way to go when trying to save energy. By Susanna Hanson, applications engineer, and Jeanne
HVAC equipment. Topics include
Harshaw, program manager,Trane. You can find this and equipment and sound attenuation
previous issues of the Engineers Newsletter at selection, equipment location, sound
www.trane.com/EN. To comment, send e-mail to ordinances, barrier walls, reflective
ENL@trane.com.
surfaces and sound power to sound
pressure conversion calculations.

Contact your local Trane office for event

details.

providing insights for today’s HVAC system designer Trane Engineers Newsletter volume 45–2 7
www.Trane.com/bookstore TRACE 700 v6.3.3
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8 Trane Engineers Newsletter volume 45–2 ADM-APN058-EN (June 2016)