Page 31 - Climate Control News December 2018

Cooling Towers
Best practice cooling tower guidelines released
THE BETTER BUILDINGS Partnership (BPP) has developed best practice cooling tower guide- lines to assist building owners and property managers manage water consumption.
The new guidelines include a number of water management tools and processes that can be used to better manage cooling tower systems.
“Using these tools will promote comparable data, clearly articulated accountabilities and transparent reporting processes,” according to the guidelines.
“Robust cooling tower management programs require clear contracts and defined lines of re- sponsibilities.
“A number of model contract clauses have been developed to assist with this process. A range of related tools that collectively form a cooling tower water management plan are also described and documented.
“The tools can be used as a set or as enhance- ments to supplement your current water man- agement systems.”
The guidelines do not assume that all buildings
Morten Schmelzer, executive director at the Eurovent Association and secre- tary of the Product Group, said it was im- portant to highlight technological devel- opment while raising awareness on core aspects such as life-cycle costs, design and selection.
“We want readers to be able to make an unbiased assessment of what defines a high-quality air handling unit and why, for instance, the initial price should not be the main purchasing argument,” he said.
will operate in the same way. Instead, a framework is provided.
“Each organisation can choose its pri- orities, level of service and reporting based upon internal needs and require- ments. The guidelines simply seek to pro- vide a common set of measures, a trans- parent method of comparing performance and a mechanism to itera- tively improve performance over time.”
The BBP is a collaboration of leading property owners and managers working to improve the performance and sustain- ability of existing buildings in Sydney and across Australia.
It was created in partnership with the City of Sydney.
The Better Buildings Partnership (BBP) said it is committed to continuous improve- ment in the management of cooling tower systems with particular focus on water con- sumption and overall water efficiency.
“The BBP hopes that by working together as an industry we can drive better standards, improve industry benchmarking and in- crease positive outcomes from cooling tower water management activities.”
Sydney CBD commercial office buildings are estimated to consume in the order of 200 million litres of water per year – that’s enough to fill up 80 Olympic swimming pools.
Cooling towers are typically the most signifi- cant water consumer in a commercial office building, often consuming up to 50% of total building annual water use.
Visit: http://betterbuildingspartnership. com.au ✺
ABOVE: Cooling towers are typically the most significant water consumer in a commercial office building.
LEFT: Sydney CBD office buildings consume in the order of 200 million litres of water per year – that’s enough to fill up 80 Olympic swimming pools.
OVERVIEW OF SECTIONS
The guideline is divided into six sections. Section 1: Introduction to cooling tower water consumption
Section 2: Technical concepts encompassing a cooling tower water
balance and a brief summary of relevant calculations.
Section 3: A set of evaluation tools that can be used to measure and evaluate cooling tower water consumption and efficiency.
Section 4: A set of standard contract
clauses that can be inserted into the relevant internal management documents and relevant third-party contracts.
Section 5: Rating protocol tool that can
be used to assess the current best practice program for cooling tower water efficiency at an individual site level or across a larger organisation.
Section 6: A list of definitions relevant to cooling tower water consumption and efficiency.
Visit: secretariat@eurovent.eu. ✺
CLIMATE CONTROL NEWS
DECEMBER – JANUARY 2019
31