6/15/22, 11:36 AM Variable Primary Chilled Water Systems Part 5: Chiller Stage Transitions —

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Transitions Blog Archive

January 07, 2021

Series
By Chad Edmondson

So far in this series we’ve briefly discussed the ways in • Air Management and
which chillers and pumps/pump speed can be staged to Pressurization
meet changing loads but we haven’t really spoken about • Avoiding Pump Cavitation
staging control. There are a few fundamental issues that in Open Systems
engineers and operators need to be aware of when it • Commercial Sewage Lift
comes to chiller staging in a variable primary pumping Stations
system.
• Condensing Boiler Plant
First, it is important to make sure the isolation valves to Piping Design
the chillers are set to open gradually when staging on a • Cooling Tower and
new chiller. Otherwise, you run the risk of freezing up the Condenser Water Design
chiller or at least causing it to go off on a FAULT due to
• Domestic Hot Water
extremely low evaporator pressure.
Recirculation

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6/15/22, 11:36 AM Variable Primary Chilled Water Systems Part 5: Chiller Stage Transitions —

To sketch this out, let’s say we are in the first stage of • Domestic Water Pressure
operation in our example variable primary pumping Booster Sizing Series
system (Figure 1). • Hot Water Boiler Plant
Design
Notice that we a have parallel layout with commonly
headered pumps and chillers, giving us the option to • How To Develop Cooling
operate the chillers and pumps in a variety of Tower Life Cycle Cost
combinations. The system is demanding 1000 GPM and • How to Pick a Centrifugal
we are meeting the load with Chiller 1 and a single pump Pump
operating. If our building demand increases to 1100 GPM,
• How to Pick a Cooling
the equivalent of 550 chiller tons, we are going to need
Tower
that second chiller, right? But we can’t just go to 100%
open on the isolation valve to Chiller 2, because then the • How to Read a Pump
flow through Chiller 1 will drop rapidly from 1100 to 550 Curve
GPM without sufficient time for the chiller to adjust its • Humidification Basics
output.
• Hydronic Balancing
• Hydronic Systems Series
• Modern Pump Selection
• Parallel Pumping in
Condenser Water
Applications
• Part Load Efficiency
Values
• Pump Efficiency Standards
• Reducing Virus
Transmission With
Humidification Series

FIGURE 1 • Steam Basics Series

• Understanding Primary
Secondary Pumping
All of a sudden Chiller 1 is operating at full 500 ton
capacity at 50% flow. As a result, it is producing 34 • Variable Primary Chilled
degree chilled water and our Delta T is through the roof Water Systems
at 22. (Figure 2)

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6/15/22, 11:36 AM Variable Primary Chilled Water Systems Part 5: Chiller Stage Transitions —

• Variable Speed Pump

Control
• Water Source Heat Pump
Series
• Waterside Economizing
Series
• WSHP Control Series
• WSHP System Design
Series

• Check Out Our

FIGURE 2
Videos!

To keep this from occurring, we must make sure that we

gradually open the isolation valve to Chiller 2. How
gradually is a function of what a particular chiller can take.
When designing a system, we recommend giving
manufacturers the worst case scenario in terms of
potential flow drop through the chiller and let them
provide you with the necessary time lapse for the chiller(s)
to adjust.

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If our variable primary system has a dedicated pump per
chiller (Figure 3), keep in mind that flow through Chiller 2
cannot be established until the pump speed for that Visit our Contact Page and let
chiller is high enough to produce enough pressure to us know what information you'd
overcome the Chiller 1 pump. As Pump 1 unloads from like to receive.
1100 GPM to 550, eventually the pressure imposed on the
check valve between Chiller 2 and Pump 2 will decrease,
allowing it to fully open so that 550 GPM is going through
both chillers.

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6/15/22, 11:36 AM Variable Primary Chilled Water Systems Part 5: Chiller Stage Transitions —

FIGURE 3

Next up we will talk about when variable primary chilled

water design should be considered.

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 Variable Primary Chilled Water Series, Variable Primary Flow, Variable Primary,
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