Chillers

Hitachi screw chillers have a great reputation for reliability, efficiency and low noise. Recently Melbourne based company ASM Chilltech, did a series of chiller installations using Hitachi Modular chillers for a Commonwealth Government Agency. We asked Project Manager Paul Culverwell, from ASM Chilltech, why they chose Hitachi Chillers.

“This project was a mixture of chiller applications using both air and water cooled units, for both process and comfort cooling and included replacements and new installations. It was really five separate projects and we chose Hitachi Modular chillers for all of them. Small footprint, cost effectiveness, ease of installation / commissioning and ongoing reliability were the key components of the choice. Reliability is always important to us but it is a critical factor for Government projects like this.”

Project 1. This was a Process Cooling application for a critical infrastructure building that required continuous cooling. One of the project challenges was that the building had to remain fully operational throughout the changeover process with essentially zero disruption. Even though this was a replacement project for a system with 100% redundancy, which allowed removal of one chiller unit at a time, space was at a premium.

We chose a Hitachi water cooled chiller, which has a very small footprint. This allowed us to locate the chillers in the plant room and manufacture new piping before the existing units were decommissioned. The small footprint of the Hitachi chillers allowed us to turn what could have been a high stress project into a smooth operation. This installation has been operating for some months now and the Hitachi chiller has performed extremely well. In particular, it has coped with a large operating range with no short cycling.

Project 2. This was a design and construct comfort cooling application for a large hall with a 24/7 high occupancy load. The building had an existing heating only system and existing control system. Our challenge was to provide a system with integrated the existing water heating and controls with the new cold water hardware. As in the project above, plant room space was quite limited.

Custom air handling units were manufactured to accommodate both cooling and heating coils. We chose a 125kW Hitachi air cooled chiller with integral chilled water pump which helped keep the footprint small. This small footprint helped with the plant room space issues and was very easy to incorporate and streamline into the existing control system. We did have to add a stainless steel chilled water buffer tank to overcome the small chilled water loop issues and to meet minimum chilled water volume requirements of the chiller.

All together Hitachi Chillers in different configurations were used in five different applications as part of this government project. The also included, a museum and training facility with modular Hitachi chillers working in high efficiency mode. This was a replacement of another brand of failed water cooled chiller with a Hitachi Air Cooled chiller. Other projects included comfort cooling applications and process cooling for a high-end testing facility.

Paul Culverwell added that ASM Chilltech’s long relationship with Hitachi Chillers going back over ten years, is based on cost effectiveness, ease of installation / commissioning and particularly exceptional reliability. The introduction of the modular format has added the advantage of a small footprint.

Paul finished by emphasizing reliability. “Hitachi make very reliable chillers that cope with the extremes of Australian climate with ease. We have a winery at Mildura with two 700kW Hitachi Chillers operating at -8°C. For 10 years, its peak output has coincided with one of the hottest times of the year (often over 40°C), without a single dollar spent on breakdowns or spare parts.”

Whatever your chiller application, you should look at the range of Hitachi modular air and water cooled chillers from Temperzone. Download the latest Chiller brochure here or contact your local Temperzone office for more information.

ASM Chilltech is a specialist HVAC Installation, Service and Maintenance company which has been in continuous operation for over 20 years. The business has steadily grown, mostly by referral, and now has offices in Traralgon and Canberra in addition to its head office in Melbourne. ASM Chilltech is geared to provide prompt, high quality HVAC services to organisations of all sizes.