Saves energy
March 1st 2006

The Tracer Summit chiller plant control system from Trane Control Systems is said to achieve significant energy savings on chiller operation, even when chillers are controlled through a conventional BMS.

The system obtains detailed information from chillers and this is used to devise a control strategy tailored to each installation and to the strengths and limitations of each chiller. On/off switching, set point reset, modulation and scheduling are used in combination to achieve optimum performance.

In one installation running three 950kW chillers, the BMS was supplemented with a Tracer Summit system and the control strategy revised accordingly. This had the effect of reducing running loads from 52.8 to 25.2%, while maintaining set flow temperatures.