Excessive water use by chiller, need some help

[j28]

Have an issue whereas we are using a lot of water (cut off the water supply and the water meter just about stopped - went fron 60 GPm to 4 GPM). Any ideas what can be happening??? Thanks!

[madhat]

Hire a Pro to look at it !!

[j28]

Thanks Madhat, but we've had two different companies look at it with no avail. Either the system is too complicated for the "professional" commerical HVAC company or they couldn't find the problem. Thanks again for your response and help with this.

[klove]

You gotta admit, j, that your request looks a bit odd, especially considering the lack of pertinent info about the problem. If you want an opinion as to why a device that is supposed to use water is using more water than you think it should, then you'll have to post all of your operating and design information for folks to look at. There's another thread not too far from here on this same subject - it might be of help. Otherwise, all anyone can tell you is that normal evap rate on a cooling tower is 1.5 + gph/ton, not counting bleed-off or carry over.

It would also be nice for you to put something about you in your profile so we know who you are. Based on your response to madhat, I can tell you that this is not a DIY site.

[madhat]

56 gallons x 60 min x 24 hours = 80,640 Gallon a day A 15' x 30' x 4' average depth backyard pool holds 13,500 gallons, unless your secretly running a Nuclear Power Plant that's a lot of water.

[chillerguy81]

56 gallons x 60 min x 24 hours = 80,640 Gallon a day A 15' x 30' x 4' average depth backyard pool holds 13,500 gallons, unless you running a Nuclear Power Plant that's a lot of water.

That comes out to about a 1866 ton cooling tower if my calculations are correct.

3 gpm per 100 tons, 56 gpm / 3 = 18.66, 18.66 X 100 = 1,866 TR

That means theres got to be something good hooked to that tower, I'll come look at it for ya!

[referteacher]

Have an issue whereas we are using a lot of water (cut off the water supply and the water meter just about stopped - went fron 60 GPm to 4 GPM). Any ideas what can be happening??? Thanks!

Float broke off the fill valve and water flowing out the overflow drain.????????????

[Shophound]

Man, the title of this thread threw me for a loop. On the list it says the chiller is using excessive water, which made me go "ruh roh". I click on the link only to learn it's the cooling tower, not the chiller. Still a "ruh roh", anyway.

Find the tower overflow exit point and see if it's gushing water. Your tower conductivity level should also be through the floor if you're making up a lot of water. Both are clues of make-up float valve problems.

If you have one GPM or water meter feeding all of your towers (if there's more than one) you can cut the water supply off to each tower (provided there's a shutoff valve at each tower make-up valve) to see which one is using a lot of water.

[Randy S.]

The first thing to look at is the fill valve or fill valves if you have more than one.
You might be running over into the overflow and just don't see it.

A cooling tower will use anywhere from 1.6 to 2.2 gallons per hour per ton, depending on a lot of variables like incoming water quality, and how many cycles of concentration your water treatment can handle before solids start precipitating out on the condenser tubes.

[9675]

I call this pissing in the wind, it doesn't say what make up water is hooked to, is it the tower or is it the evap side???(big leak) need a lot more details including tonnage of equipment, and how do you still have 4 gpm with make up off

[LARRIEMENDOZA]

Man, the title of this thread threw me for a loop. On the list it says the chiller is using excessive water, which made me go "ruh roh". I click on the link only to learn it's the cooling tower, not the chiller. Still a "ruh roh", anyway.

Find the tower overflow exit point and see if it's gushing water. Your tower conductivity level should also be through the floor if you're making up a lot of water. Both are clues of make-up float valve problems.

If you have one GPM or water meter feeding all of your towers (if there's more than one) you can cut the water supply off to each tower (provided there's a shutoff valve at each tower make-up valve) to see which one is using a lot of water.

Very good analysis...I agree..

[just chillin']

Have an issue whereas we are using a lot of water (cut off the water supply and the water meter just about stopped - went fron 60 GPm to 4 GPM). Any ideas what can be happening??? Thanks!

The guy's are right Poster. You need to give more info including what part of the world this piece of equipment is in. M#'s etc. Your profile is also very sparse.

[Pneuma]

Have an issue whereas we are using a lot of water (cut off the water supply and the water meter just about stopped - went fron 60 GPm to 4 GPM). Any ideas what can be happening??? Thanks!

Do the pipes between the chiller and the tower go underground?