The following article was published in ASHRAE Journal, June, 2002.

Copyright 2002 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-

Conditioning Engineers, Inc. It is presented for educational purposes only. This article may not be copied and/or distributed electronically or in
paper form without permission of ASHRAE.

SeriesSeries Counterflow for

Central Chilled Water Plants
By Steve Groenke, Associate Member ASHRAE, and Mick Schwedler, P.E., Member ASHRAE

hen a project is large enough to justify the evaluation of several

W prospective designs, engineers are more willing to explore new
with the dry bulb, but is internally
driven. Wet-bulb temperature deter-
mines cooling-tower energy consump-
solutions to familiar challenges. Setting aside convention enables ideas tion at a given load.),
to flow freely. The viability of prospective solutions can then be gauged Discount rate,
20-year service life,
using criteria such as life-cycle cost, simplicity, and first cost. The scale
Installed, operating, and mainte-
of a new central cooling plant located in Washington, D.C. was large nance costs for chillers, pumps,
enough to warrant this type of innovative engineering. Given the mag- and cooling tower fans (The method of
accounting for pumping energy costs
nitude of the project, the owner elected to outsource the design, con- is discussed elsewhere in this
struction, and operation of the 10,500-ton (36 900 kW) chilled water article.), and
plant to an energy service company. A specific electric utility rate for
the plant.

Life-Cycle Cost nif icant weekday cooling loads, the Fixed Parameters
To ensure that the chilled water plant centers meeting areas often are used on As in most central chilled water plants,
provided the owner with the best possible weekends. The loads are year-round. the initial costs for distributing the
value, lowest life-cycle cost was chosen However, airside economizers reduce the chilled water (pumps, piping) were con-
as the determining criterion for the plants need for mechanical cooling during sidered critical. Using a larger-than-con-
design. An independent financial con- many months of the year. ventional difference between the
sultant performed a cost analysis of each The consultant developed a detailed entering and leaving chilled water tem-
alternative to ensure an equitable com- spreadsheet to examine the life-cycle peratures permits a lower flow rate.
parison. Each of these analyses was based costs for the chillers, chilled water Smaller pipes and pumps can then be
on a load profile specific to the plant. pumps, condenser water pumps, and used to satisfy the same capacity.2,3 Based
The profile was developed from the ex- cooling tower fans in each proposed de- on that premise, the plant owner estab-
pected loads of the customer who had sign. The spreadsheet accounted for: lished these non-negotiable design pa-
signed the contract to purchase chilled Load profile, rameters for the chilled water system:
water. The primary cooling loads are from Ambient dry-bulb and wet-bulb Entering-chiller water temperature:
a convention center. In addition to sig- conditions (Load does not vary directly 55F (12.8C),
Leaving-chiller water temperature:

As can be the case when a third party per- disclosure of the original data is necessary to 37F (2.8C), and
forms an economic analysis, few details (in- verify the results and offer recommendations
cluding the actual plant load profile) were that might benefit the plant owner. About the Authors

made available to the authors. Readers may It may have been possible to achieve a Steve Groenke is the new equipment sales man-
find this frustratingso did the authors. Al- higher entering chiller temperature, but do- ager with Trane in Timonium, Md. Mick
though third-party analyses can ensure greater ing so was not within the plant owners direct Schwedler, P.E., is a senior principal applications
objectivity and fair play by the principals, full control. engineer with Trane in La Crosse, Wis.

ASHRAE Journal|June 2002 23

 Arrangement Chillers# Evaporator Condenser Cooling Towers System
Power Power Power
Compresor P , f t Number P , f t Number Total Life-Cycle
Units / Flow, per Flow, per Number per
Evaporator Condenser Efficiency, of of of of Power, Cost, $
Modules gpm Pump gpm Pump of Cells Cell
kW/ton Water Pumps Water Pumps kW USD
kW kW kW
Parallel Parallel 5/5 0.649 2,800 3.26 5 2.18 4,200 3.66 5 3.67 8 60 7324 18,836,302
Parallel Parallel 6/6 0.618 2,333 4.18 6 2.33 3,500 3.53 6 2.95 8 60 7001 18,076,391
Series
Counter-
Series 6/3 0.560 4,667 17.96 3 19.99 5,250 14.8 3 18.54 8 48 6379 16,819,167
flow (1.5
gpm/ton)
Series
Counter-
Series 6/3 0.535 4,667 17.96 3 19.99 7,000 25.2 3 42.08 8 60 6284 16,656,947
flow (2.0
gpm/ton)
Parallel
Series (2.0 6/3 0.555 4,667 17.96 3 19.99 3,500 3.53 6 2.95 8 60 6385 16,888,493
gpm/ton)
# The chillers represented in this table all have two refrigerant circuits. The full analysis included single refrigerant circuit chillers at various
flow rates and efficiencies.
Table 1: Comparison of projected life-cycle costs for central chilled water plant.*

Flow rate/capacity: 1.33 gpm/ton (0.024 mL/J).

Certainly, supplying 37F (2.8C) rather than 40F or 42F
(4.4C or 5.6C) chilled water would require more power from
the chillers. Therefore, it was expected that the cost savings
associated with reduced pumping power and pipe installa-
tion would offset any increase in chiller power. Historically,
producing 37F (2.8C) water might have prompted concern
that the low refrigerant suction temperatures would freeze the
evaporator tubes. Experience shows that the advent of fast,
accurate chiller controls and algorithms can safely accom-
modate temperatures as low as 34F (1.1C) without the addi-
tion of antifreeze.
Figure 1: Seriesseries counterflow arrangement.
Selected Design
Various combinations of absorption chillers, electric chill- chiller evaporators have been used, when prudent, in many ap-
ers, and engine-driven generator/chillers were considered dur- plications.7, 16 However, the chilled-water plant design that was
ing the conceptual phase of design. The final evaluation selected for this project not only arranges the evaporators in
examined 11 combinations of plant configurations and flow series, but also arranges the condensers in series using a
rates. Chillers with single compressors and dual compressors counterflow configuration (see Figure 1). At design conditions:
were examined, and manufacturers were allowed to submit Chilled water enters the upstream chiller at 55F (12.8C)
cost and performance information for any configuration. Plant and exits at 45.1F (7.3C).
configurations ranged from four to nine chillers, and included Chilled water enters the downstream chiller at 45.1F
proposals with: (7.3C) and exits at 37F (2.8C).
Both evaporators and condensers in parallel; Condenser water flows in the opposite direction of the chilled
Evaporators in series and condensers in parallel; and water, thus the term counterflow:
Both evaporators and condensers in series. Condenser water enters the downstream chiller at 85F
Table 1 shows five of the combinations that were exam- (29.4C) and exits at 91.3F (32.9C).
ined. The system with the lowest life-cycle cost consisted of Condenser water enters the upstream chiller at 91.3F
six electric centrifugal chillers with dual refrigeration cir- (32.9C) and exits at 98.9F (37.2C).
cuits, that used 2 gpm (0.0358 mL/J) of condenser water per
ton of cooling, and was piped in a series evaporatorseries Chiller Energy Consumption
condenser arrangement. A chillers power demand reflects the amount of lift provided
As Table 1 indicates, arranging the chiller evaporators in se- by the compressor. Lift describes the difference between evapo-
ries reduced life-cycle costs by more than $1.4 million when
compared with parallel arrangements. Series arrangements of * gpm 0.0631 = L/s; gpm/ton 0.0179 = mL/J; ft of water 2.99 = kPa

24 June 2002|ASHRAE Journal

 Chillers

rator pressure and condenser pressure:

Evap. Refrigerant Temperature = Lvg.
Chilled Water
Temperature Evap. Approach Tem-
perature
Cond. Refrigerant Temperature = Lvg. (28.4C) (27.9C) (27.8C) (27.2C)

Cond. Water
Temperature + Cond. Approach
Temperature
At saturation, these temperatures re-
late directly to the refrigerant pressures
in the evaporator and condenser.
It is clear from Table 1 that the series
series counterflow arrangement yields
Figure 2: Conceptualization of reduced lift.
the lowest full-load chiller power (about
14% lower than the parallelparallel
configuration). The dramatic reduction in chiller power oc- ity to produce chilled water at an elevated temperature.
curs because the upstream chiller in the seriesseries (When this article was written, the plant had not operated
counterflow arrangement operates at a higher chilled water through an entire cooling season.) How the plant should re-
temperature, which means that the refrigerant temperature spond to varying system conditions was discussed with the
and refrigerant pressure in the evaporator are also higher in design engineer, plant owner, and plant operators. For ex-
the upstream machine. Similarly, the downstream chiller ample, if the entering chiller water temperature did not reach
sees a lower condenser leaving water temperature design conditions, the operators could:
and therefore has a lower condenser refrigerant pressure Increase pump speed or the number of active pumps
than it would in a plant with the chiller condensers arranged to increase flow rates through, and fully load, the active
in parallel. chillers.
Figure 2 illustrates the concept of reduced lift using the Reset the setpoints of the upstream chillers to 55% of the
design parameters for this chilled water plant. Although lift is total temperature difference. Lowering the setpoint of the up-
the difference between the refrigerant pressures in the evapo- stream chillers as the result of a drop in entering-chiller water
rator and condenser, its magnitude can be approximated using temperature lessens the benefit of reduced lift. However, the
the difference between the water temperatures leaving the upstream chillers will always run at a higher evaporator
evaporator and condenser. Chiller power can be reduced by pressure than the downstream chillers, which saves energy
decreasing compressor lift. In this case, the difference in consumption and costs.
average lift at design is approximately 13%: Chiller sequencing was also discussed. It was determined
that the most cost-effective startup strategy would fully load
1 {[(54.3 + 53.8)/2]/61.9} = 0.126 one chiller module, and then activate the remaining chillers in
The reduction in lift provided by the seriesseries modules (pairs). Activating the upstream chiller and operating
counterflow arrangement also occurs at part-load conditions. it at the higher water temperature would take advantage of all
Why? The temperature of the water leaving the evaporator of of the available heat-transfer surface area without increasing
the upstream chiller is always warmer than the system water, the energy consumed by ancillary equipment.
and the temperature of the water leaving the condenser of the At the design conditions defined for the system, chiller per-
downstream chiller is always cooler than the system water. formance is well below the 6.10 COP (0.576 kW/ton) require-
Because each of the chillers in this design has two refrigera- ment set by ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2001, Energy
tion circuits (Figure 1), the reduced lift effect is multiplied. Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Build-
Instead of two lifts, there are four (Figure 2). Therefore, the ings. At standard ARI rating conditions, each chiller module

difference in average lift at design for the system with four would operate with an efficiency of 0.445 kW/ton. The per-
independent refrigeration circuits in a seriesseries formance conditions for this application, however, were care-
counterflow arrangement exceeds 19%: fully selected to optimize the overall energy consumption of
the entire chilled water plant.1
1 {[(51.1 + 50.3 + 50.0 + 48.9)/4]/61.9} = 0.191

Standard ARI rating conditions are 44F, 2.4 gpm/ton (6.7C,
The upstream chiller need not be equally loaded at all 0.043 L/s per kW) for the evaporator and 85F, 3 gpm/ton (29.4C,
times; the anticipated savings come from that chillers abil- 0.054 L/s per kW) for the condenser.

ASHRAE Journal|June 2002 25

Figure 3: Comparison of evaporator layouts. Figure 4: Comparison of counterflow condenser layouts.

Focus on the System the chiller evaporators in response to system load. The pump
The reduction in chiller power comes at the expense of penalty still exists at full load. However, it is significantly
increased pumping energy. With the utility meter measuring less at part load/partial flow because the differences in evapo-
the consumption of the entire plantnot the chillers alone rator pressure drop and chilled water pumping power decrease
the ultimate goal must be to reduce plant power. Would the rapidly as the flow rate slows. Combining variable primary
seriesseries counterflow arrangement reduce the compres- flow and a series arrangement of evaporators circulates twice
sor power enough to make up for the increase in pump power? as much water through the evaporator of each chiller.
Table 2 compares the overall power consumption for the This combination also creates a second advantage: each
chilled water plant based chiller can accommodate
on three different arrange- a much greater reduction
ments of six chillers. In Arrangement Pumps in water flow, which post-
Cooling Total
each case, the condenser- Chilled Condenser To w e r P l a nt pones the need for a sys-
Evaporator Condenser Chillers
water flow rate is 2 W a t e r W a te r tem bypass. (Use of
gpm/ton (0.0358 mL/J). Parallel Parallel 6,489 14 18 480 7,001 variable primary-flow
Series Parallel 5,827 60 18 480 6,385
Chilled Water Pumps. systems is increasingly
Series
The f ive chilled water Series Counter- 5,618 60 126 480 6,284 common and well docu-
pumps in this design are flow mented.) 46,9,1112,1415,17
piped in a manifold ar- Table 2: Comparison of power requirements (kW) at identical Condenser Water
rangement; one of the rates of condenser water flow. Pumps. The condenser
pumps is redundant. water pumps are piped in
Doubling the water flow through the evaporators created a a manifold arrangement. In the selected plant configuration,
water pressure drop that was significantly higher for the se- one active pump is provided per chiller module. Redundancy
ries arrangements than for the parallel configurations (Table is provided by two smaller pumps, which enables one of the
1). To minimize this penalty as much as possible, single- pumps to operate during low-load conditions and reduce
pass tube bundles were used in the series evaporators. Other- pumping energy consumption. This is described later.
wise, the pressure drop and resultant pump power would have Basing an economic comparison of design alternatives on
been even higher. Despite the high water pressure drop, re- life-cycle costs requires an overall summation of the total costs
ducing compressor lift by arranging the evaporators in series for power (demand) and energy (consumption). Therefore, al-
yielded chiller power savings that dwarfed the additional though the total power for the seriesseries counterflow plant
pump power needed at full load. was lowest (Table 2), it was also necessary to account for the
To further offset the economic impact of larger chilled wa- costs related to energy consumption.
ter pumps, the plant design also varies primary flow through Water flow rates and configurations for the chiller con-

26 June 2002|ASHRAE Journal

 Chillers

densers were evaluated in a manner similar to that used for

the chilled water loop. When the results were compared, the
life-cycle cost analysis (Table 1) pointed to a system design
that combined a series arrangement of the chiller condensers
with a condenser water flow rate of 2 gpm/ton (0.0358 mL/J).
Choosing this design permitted a smaller cooling tower and
reduced the size of the condenser piping. It also reduced the
initial and operating costs of the cooling tower fans and con-
denser water pumps.8,10 As Table 1 reveals, arranging the con-
densers in series significantly increased the pressure drop
and required pumping power. Yet, the savings in chiller (com-
pressor) power and energy offset this penalty, too.
A further reduction in flow rate to 1.5 gpm/ton (0.268 mL/J)
was also examined and would provide an even greater reduc-
tion in tower fan power, but the plant owner did not allow any
pipe cost for flow rates below 2 gpm/ton (0.0358 mL/J). Nor
did the owner account for pump savings due to cooling tower
height and static lift requirements. Although the effects of vari-
able condenser water flow were considered, the owner decided
that constant flow would simplify plant operation.
Space Considerations. The selected design for the chilled
water plant provided one chilled water pump and one con-
denser water pump for each chiller module. Two redundant Advertisement in the print edition formerly in this space.
pumps were provided as well: one for the chilled water loop
and one for the condenser water loop. Collectively, these
components occupy less space than a comparable primary
secondary system. Some variable primary-flow systems use
fewer pumps than chillers to further reduce the space required
for piping connections, variable speed drives, and electrical
service for the pumps.

Clarifying the Economics

During the design phase, the owner sought to better under-
stand the relationship between the operating characteristics of
the seriesseries counterflow arrangement and the projected
savings in life-cycle costs. Several questions of particular rel-
evance are paraphrased here, along with their answers:
Q: Wont piping the chiller condensers in series, rather than
in parallel, result in a significantly higher operating cost?
A: Arranging the condensers in series does increase the pump-
ing power per chiller module by 36 kW at full load, given the
increased condenser pressure drop of 22 ft (66 kPa). However,
the compressor power reduction per module is 69 kW, which
far exceeds the 36 kW increase in pumping power. Remember,
too, that the seriesseries counterflow arrangement always re-
duces the required amount of compressor lift, even when the
plant operates at part load. Sequencing the constant-volume

The authors of this article speculate that the decisions made by the
plant owner represented a comfortable compromise between the
seriesseries counterflow arrangement, which was economically sen-
sible but unfamiliar, and other more conventional (and familiar) as-
pects of chilled water plant design.

ASHRAE Journal|June 2002 27

condenser pumps makes it possible to reduce flow to the mod- riesseries counterflow arrangement of chillers require awk-
ules as the load decreases. This control strategy significantly ward and more costly bypass piping and valves around each
reduces pumping energy consumption when the plant oper- condenser and evaporator?
ates at less than 50% of full-load capacity. A: Operating chillers in pairs is a concept. As such, the se-
Q: Because the chillers are started in pairs, the series riesseries counterflow arrangement can be implemented by
series counterflow arrangement of this design requires two, piping both loops, condenser and chilled water, in a similar
four, or six chillers at load conditions while a parallelparal- manner to the more familiar parallel system. Such arrange-
lel configuration would only require one, three, or five ments (Figure 3, Figure 4) provide virtually the same service-
chillers. Did the analysis account for this difference in pump- ability and redundancy, regardless of whether the chillers are
ing energy? piped in parallel or in series, unless all of the upstream chillers
A: Deciding to minimize the number of condenser water are simultaneously off-line for service.
pumps used when three chiller modules operate led to the With either arrangement (series or parallel), the system will
use of three large condenser pumps for this plant. All pumps run out of capacity at peak load if one chiller is not in service.
operate whether the condensers were piped in parallel or in Flow through the operating chillers can be increased until the
series. To save pumping energy when only one chiller mod- pumps no longer have enough power. However, after system
ule operates (that is, during winter load hours), the system load exceeds chiller capacity, the chilled water setpoint will
is designed to supply only 3,500 gpm (220 L/s) of condenser not be maintained.
water. Supplying two smaller pumps (rather than one large
pump) for redundancy allowed this. In low-load conditions, Conclusions
only one of the smaller pumps is run. The manufacturer con- The seriesseries counterflow (series evaporatorsseries
firmed that the chillers would operate properly at half of the condensers) design required discussion and resolution of po-
design condenser water flow. tential drawbacks, however, an independent analysis of life-
Q: Compared with a parallel configuration, wont the se- cycle costs demonstrated that the seriesseries counterflow

Advertisement in the print edition formerly in this space.

28 June 2002|ASHRAE Journal

 Chillers

arrangement was the most cost-effective solution for this cen-

tral chilled water plant.
Since this project was awarded, at least two other chilled
water plants have adopted similar configurations. The appli-
cation discussed here was large (more than 10,000 tons [35
170 kW] of mechanical refrigeration), but the seriesseries
counterflow concept can be, and has been, successfully
applied to much smaller jobs. The same design challenges
will be encountered and can be overcome when it makes
economic sense.
In all cases, remember that the utility meter is on the build-
ing. The building owner pays the costs (demand plus con-
sumption) of installing, maintaining, and operating the entire
systemchillers, chilled water pumps, condenser water pumps,
cooling tower fans, and controls. Analyze the actual load pro-
file at ambient conditions to determine which design yields
the lowest life-cycle cost.

References
1. ARI Standard 550/5901998, Standard for Water Chilling Pack-
ages Using the Vapor Compressor Cycle (Arlington, VA: Air-Condi-
tioning and Refrigeration Institute).
2. 2000 ASHRAE HandbookHVAC Systems and Equipment. Chapter
11, District Heating and Cooling. Advertisement in the print edition formerly in this space.
3. 2000 ASHRAE HandbookHVAC Systems and Equipment Hand-
book. Chapter 12, Hydronic Heating and Cooling System Design.
4. Avery, G. 2001. Improving the efficiency of chilled water plants.
ASHRAE Journal 43(5):1418.
5. Avery, G. 1998. Controlling chillers in variable flow systems.
ASHRAE Journal 40(2):4245.
6. Bahnfleth, W.P., E. Peyer. 2001. Comparative analysis of variable
and constant primary-flow chilled-water-plant performance. HPAC
Engineering, April, p. 50.
7. Coad, William J. 1998. A fundamental perspective on chilled
water systems. Heating/Piping/Air Conditioning, August, pp. 5966.
8. Demirchian, G.H., M.A. Maragareci. 1997. The benefits of higher
condenser water T at Logan International Airport central chilled water
plant. IDEA 88th Annual Conference Proceedings, pp. 291300.
9. Hartman, T. 2001. All-variable speed centrifugal chiller plants.
ASHRAE Journal, September.
10. Kelly, D.W., T. Chan. 1999. Optimizing chilled water plants.
Heating/Piping/Air Conditioning, January, pp. 145147.
11. Kirsner, W. 1996. The demise of the primary-secondary pump-
ing paradigm for chilled water plant design. Heating/Piping/Air Con-
ditioning, November.
12. Luther, K. 1998. Applying variable volume pumping. Heat-
ing/Piping/Air Conditioning, October, pp. 5358.
13. Rishel, J.B. 1996. HVAC Pump Handbook, pp. 109112.
14. Schwedler, M., B. Bradley. 2000. Variable-primary-flow sys-
tems: An idea for chilled-water plants the time of which has come.
Heating/Piping/Air Conditioning, April, pp. 4144.
15. Taylor, S. 2002. Primary-only vs. primary-secondary variable-
flow chilled water systems. ASHRAE Journal 44(2):2529.
16. Trane. 2001. Multiple-Chiller-System Design and Control, pp.
5859.
17. Waltz, J.P. 1997. Dont ignore variable flow. Contracting Busi-
ness July:133144.

ASHRAE Journal|June 2002 29