Optimizing Campus Chilled Water Connections

Campuses and institutions often use centralized plants with chilled water distribution infrastructure to provide cooling to multiple buildings for the various operational and packaging benefits that come with a central utility plant scheme. The way these buildings connect to the chilled water distribution infrastructure can have a significant impact on the performance of the central plant and on the HVAC systems in the building. Although several articles have been written about this topic over the years,1 - 4 the author has recently observed examples where campus chilled water design fundamentals have been misapplied, so our design community may benefit from a refresher.