Cooling Tower Running in Winter Season

[yyj10]

Hi,

I have a question on choosing cooling tower or dry cooler. It is required that the cooling tower through the winter season. But it may have some freezing issues. I am thinking separate the sump and locate it indoor and put the cooling tower at the highest point of the building. So, when the cooling tower is operating in winter, the water will fall back to sump by gravity and the sump is kept above freezing point all time. The cooling tower fans can run reversely to defrost the ice outside the pipes.

Could someone having more experience with cooling tower give me some suggestions on this? Thank you so much!

 

[berkshire]

You might get a better answer if you indicate the lattitude of this cooling tower.
B.E.

The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them. Old professor

 

[yyj10]

The roof is about 25 foot height, have not designed the system, so the dimension of cooling tower is unknown. Thanks!

 

[GMcD]

I'd have to wonder why a cooling tower would need to run in a climate where it might freeze in wintertime? - what is the application? If the cooling tower has to run in the winter, I'd use a fluid cooler with winterized spray pump and sump systems (turn off the spray pump and auto-drain the sump, and heat trace the spray pump below outdoor temps below 4C)

 

[KiwiMace]

You can run an open tower with the reversible fan, basin heaters and a limited amount of bypass. This is done all over the world in cold climates.

The problem with dry coolers, apart from the cost, is that the performance in summer peak conditions can be pitiful.

Closed loop evaporatively cooled towers can be run with glycol, they cost more than open towers but the performance is much better than dry coolers in summer.

 

[yyj10]

Thanks a lot for excellent suggestion!KiwiMace!
One more question:
For open loop cooling tower system, if it is not running 24/7, would you drain the water out of pipes in winter when the cooling tower is not running? or keep the pump running and just bypass the water?

 

[KiwiMace]

Depends how long the shutdown will be for, and how quickly you need it back on. This is a good chance to clean it and do annual maintenance.