What is an Air-Cooled Chiller?

• Air-cooled chillers are refrigeration devices of a sort. They utilize a process of evaporation and condensation within a closed system to chill the surrounding air. Typically, such devices are used for large industrial purposes, as they are more energy efficient than traditional freon-powered refrigerators. It is a common misconception that air-cooled chillers do not use water. This is incorrect. What the name actually means is that no water is used to absorb waste heat from the chiller's closed system.

  Structure

• An air-cooled chiller is a closed system. It starts with a device called an evaporator. It has a shell of tubes surrounding a central chamber. The tubes surround whatever item or material is meant to be cooled by the chiller. The central chamber of the evaporator then connects with a compressor. The compressor connects with a condenser, which then connects back to the evaporator.

  How Do Air-Cooled Chillers Work?

• The process starts with the evaporator, which contains a liquid refrigerant. The refrigerant radiates out cold to the surrounding tubes that are filled with water. The water is chilled and pumped through a circuit, absorbing heat from whatever items the chiller is meant to cool. When the water has finally reached a high enough temperature, it radiates the heat back at the refrigerant in the evaporator, causing it to turn into vapor. The vapor passes through a pipe into the compressor, which, predictably, compresses the vapor into a smaller space, putting it under high pressure and heat. This superheated vaporized refrigerant is then pumped through a condenser. The condenser is a series of air-cooled vanes, similar to those found in a car's radiator. The vapor gives off its heat into the surrounding air and then condenses back into a liquid. The liquid flows back into the evaporator to repeat the chilling process.