FRP COOLING TOWERS & SYSTEMS

ACTS Series
Light weight FRP cooling tower systems with efficient counter-flow-water-to-air design

Available in Sizes from 5 to 1,500 nominal cooling tower tons

Applications: plastics, hydraulics, dry cleaning, metal finishing, air-conditioning, more…

What sets us American Chillers apart from other FRP Cooling Tower companies? We add value by providing you with engineering support, manufacturing complete systems including cooling tower control panels and by providing excellent technical assistance after the sale.

We have engineered cooling tower systems for large and small manufacturer’s, air-conditioning applications and even for NASCAR racing teams. Put our engineers to work for your process cooling application! Contact us today!

picture: FRP Cooling Tower System by American ChillersrAmerican Chillers & Cooling Towers Multiple FRP Cooling Tower Systems Installation

Design Features:
Lightweight and compact, the modular design of the FRP cooling tower provides easier installation and simplified job assembly. Wind direction will not affect the performance due to the unique 360 degree design of the aerodynamic fiberglass casing.

Fiberglass casing:
Individual fiberglass panels bolt together with stainless steel hardware and are easily opened for periodic cleaning. the FRP fiberglass panels will last for a very long time as they are impervious to severe environmental weather conditions.

Fan Blades:

The aerodynamic blade design helps conserve power and require much lower horsepower than comparable sized towers. They are also factory balanced to provide very quite, vibration free, operation. Models 3 through 50 feature ABS plastic blades; Models 60 and above feature aluminum alloy, adjustable blades.

Fan Motors:
American Chiller models ACTS-3 thorugh ACTS-20- utilize direct drive motors; Models ACTS-225 and larger use a belt drive pulley/belt drive.

Air Flow:
The air is pulled into the tower through the plastic, anti-splash inlet louvers that encompass the 360 degree base opening. As the water falls down through the fill pack, the air moves vertically in counter-flow to it and exits out the vortex opening in the top, above the fan.

Water Distribution:
A rotating head and sprinkler pipe assembly sits atop the center supply pipe, propelled around to distribute the rwater across the top of the PVC fill pack. Models 3 though 60 use an ABS sprinkler head; 70 thorugh 1000 use an aluminum alloy sprinkler head. The sprinkler is propelled at tan average rate of 8 to 12 RPM by the inlet water pressure of between 2.1 psi – 8.1 psi.

PVC Fill Pack:
The honeycomb PVC fill pack has a very high heat transfer efficiency, making this “bottle” design the most efficient cooling tower available. The PVC fill pack can be used for inlet water temperature up to 115oF; above that, polypropylene should be ordered.

In order to size a cooling tower, you will need to know your process flow (gallons per minute) and supply and return fluid temperatures. You will also need to know the wet bulb and ambient temperatures for the area where you are located. Use the charts below to size your cooling tower. Note – the model numbers do not reference air-conditioning tons.

FRP Cooling Tower Sizing Chart

To determine the wet bulb for your city, refer to the chart below

Web Bulb Table for Cooling Tower Sizing Page American Chillers and Cooling Tower Systems Inc.Additional Considerations

Map of dry and humid climates for cooling tower sizing example American Chillers & Cooling Tower Systems, Inc.Why Do FRP Cooling Towers Work Better in Dry Climates?
FRP Cooling Towers work better in dry climates than in humid climates simply because there is more water evaporation that takes place in a dry location or on a dry day VS a humid day.

What’s a Quick Method for Determining Cooling Tower Size?
You can look at the charts above or if you are located east of the Mississippi River, and know the chiller size, simply double the chiller size then go up one size. For example, if you need a 5 ton chiller, you might choose an ACTS-15 cooling tower. The map at the right illustrates dry climates and low humidity areas as 1 and 2 against the humid areas of 3 and 4.
Areas 3 and 4 are very humid and FRP Cooling Towers are about half as efficient here as in areas 1 and 2.

When is a Chiller Sizing and FRP Cooling Tower Sizing equal?
In areas 1 and 2 a cooling tower will probably reject as many BTU’s per ton of rating as a chiller. If, then, a machine needs a 10 ton chiller it will probably perform equally with a 10 ton tower.
The same machine in areas 3 and 4 will typically require a tower twice as big as the chiller, due to the factor we call wet bulb temperature.
The wet bulb temperature is defined as that temperature that the ambient temperature ( dry bulb temperature ) and the relative humidity working together make happen. It is not theoretical; it is very real. Hot is not a bad thing for evaporation. In fact, evaporation is very rapid in the desert ( Las Vegas @ 71° W.B. ) at 100°. Humidity works against the heat, however, and retards the evaporation rate. An average humidity of 85% will reduce the rate by at least half.

Evaporation Cools the Water
Cooling towers are engineered to evaporate moving water as it passes over PVC or other material and air is blown through it. The more evaporation that takes place, the better the cooling. The simple explanation is that when water changes state from a liquid to a gas it consumes BTU’s, or heat. Evaporation of a pound of water will consume nearly 1,000 Btu’s. That loss of heat will change the temperature of the water left behind, slightly.

Chiller vs. tower
By design, cooling towers are high flow rate devices. Nominal flow rates of 2.5 to 3.0 gallons/ ton/minute are normal. The 10 ton chiller will also circulate approximately 2.5 gallons per minute/ton, and because it is mechanically cooled with refrigeration, the nominal cooling is 8 to 10 degrees each time a gallon of water passes through the heat exchanger.
Ideally, our cooling tower would match that, and it will in areas 1 and 2 most of the time. Un fortunately, in areas 3 and 4, the wet bulb temperatures are much higher and in the peak of summer when it is hot and humid at the same time, the tower may only cool that gallon of water 2 or 3 degrees F each pass through the tower. Chillers, then, are a huge advantage at these times.

Install bigger towers to compensate (more on chiller VS tower sizing)!
The norm in areas 3 and 4 is: Tower Size = 2 x Chiller Size. If an application calls for a 10 ton chiller, a 20 ton cooling tower is recommended. The net result is that by moving twice the water ( flow rate ) the reduced temperature drop can be compensated for by cooling the water twice, instead of once.

Point of no return
When ( not if ) the wet bulb temperature is higher ( it is hot and humid! ) the ability of the tower regardless of tower size is less. I t doesn’t matter if you install a 100 ton tower and circulate 300 gallons per minute, if the wet bulb temperature is 77°, the best you can get is probably 3° to 5° above that, or 80° to 82°. The table below lists some major U.S. cities with the design dry bulb and wet bulb temperature ratings as listed by the American Refrigeration Institute. Add a few degrees to the wet bulb and you will have the coolest water temperature attainable in the worst summer months. Put another way, the wet bulb temperature is that worst ( hottest )
temperature attainable; and 97% of the time it will be cooler.
The key is to be able to cope with those times when wet bulb is the highest or to consider using a chiller instead of a cooling tower if your process doesn’t allow for variation (critical cooling processes).

Maintenance of towers
Fact 1: Maintenance is crucial to the efficient operation of Cooling Towers.
Fact 2: The better cooling towers work (evaporate water) the dirtier towers become and the more maintenance they require.
Fact 3: From the first minute a new tower goes online, it starts to lose efficiency and the ability to cool. This is another reason to oversize them to maintain cooling capacity as they age.

Summary
You can see from the table that if the humidity is low ( Las Vegas or Phoenix ) and the dry bulb ( ambient ) temperature is high ( 100°F + ) the cooling ability of a tower is very, very good. That 71° wet bulb in Las Vegas means the tower will yield 75° or cooler water 97% of the time. Even when it is 106°F in the shade! And not many towers are in the shade in Las Vegas.
I personally measured a roof top temperature of 157° at 2:30 p.m. once! And don’t tell me “Yea, but it is a dry heat!” It was bloody hot! Yet, the tower was producing 65° water!
On the other hand, that same tower had to be replaced every three years because the buildup of minerals turned it into a brick real fast.
Look at Tampa @ 80° and Pensacola @ 81°, with a dry bulb of 90° and 91°, respectively. Not only is the humidity so thick you can cut it with a knife but it is also hot. And that is not a dry heat! No wonder that a tower can only produce 95° water in the peak of summer. The tap ( ground ) water is 85°.

When does a cooling tower becomes a water heater?
Assuming, you have 75° water coming out of the process, and you send it to a cooling tower because you want 65° , what temperature will you get back? Answer: In the case of the Tampa tower above, 95°degrees!
This dispels the assumption that a refrigeration coil in the tank is a good “booster” or supplement for the tower. A helper chiller can be used, but not by putting a coil in the tank. It would take a 12.5 ton chiller to “help” a 10 ton tower by 10° that way! It all gets down to wet bulb and flow rates and Btu’s and pounds per minute and horsepower.

If you have questions on sizing your cooling tower or a cooling problem for which you
need assistance, feel free to contact us. We will be happy to assist you!

Two common ways to install a cooling tower using tanks

Hot Tank / Cold Tank Process Schematic

Hot Tank and Cold Tank Process Schematic

The divided or dual tank system works very well in most industrial processes where there are several different loads or machines with different flows and temperature requirements.

Processes that are on and then off with extended time between batches or cycles can benefit by using a smaller cooling tower that runs continuously to cool water for a larger load.

This system requires a large combined tank capacity to hold enough water for the process in the cold tank and allow for drain down of the tower when the system is shut down at night or weekends.

Single Tank Process Cooling for Northern Climates

Single Tank Process Cooling

The supply pipe S and the return pipe R should be the same size as the connections on the tow-er. The bypass valve is installed at the extreme end of the process loop where it divides the high pressure ( supply ) side and low pressure ( return ) side. The bypass valve is adjusted to maintain the optimum flow to the tower without the heat exchangers on line.

The circulating loop is maintained at 60F to 85F by the cooling tower. The return water from the heat exchangers is much warmer than the loop temperature. For example, the heat exchang-er nay use 10 gpm at 80F and return it to the loop at 100F. It mixes in the return line with 75 gpm of 80 degree water going to the tower. It raises the temperature of total 85 gpm 3 degrees. The tower cools it back to 80F and returns it to the tank.

The tank is sized to hold all the water that is circulating plus the water in the tower when the pump shuts off. At that time, the tower will drain back to the tank. That is why the tank is 1/2 full during operation. The tower will be quite dry, then, and will not become an ice ball in the winter in the northern climates.

We engineer and build cooling tower systems. This is added value for you, our customer. Cooling Tower Systems consist of one or all of the following;

An assembled cooling tower that ships with a skid that contains system pump(s), process tank(s) and control panel. This skid is fabricated at the factory and ships ready to install. All you will need to do is connect the piping, electricity and water supply.

Advantages to a prefabricated tank pump skid
A factory fabricated tank pump skid can be an advantage to assembling on site as it is fabricated in the factory in a controlled environment. It also saves on installation time.

We have been engineering cooling tower systems since the 1980’s! Put our experience to work for your cooling tower process.

Rated
Tons
RT
Weights (lbs) Piping Connections (In.) Fan
Motor
H.P.
Fan
Dia. (Inch)
Air
Flow
(cfm)
Nom. Flow
(gpm)
Model
No.
Dry
Wt.
Wet
Wt.
In Out O Dr Float Q
1ACTS-5 3,3 86 251 1-1/2 1-1/2 1 3/4 1/2 1/6* 19 1/2 2,118 10
1ACTS-8 5,3 93 262 1-1/2 1-1/2 1 3/4 1/2 1/6* 19 1/2 2,648 16
1ACTS-10 6,7 123 443 1-1/2 1-1/2 1 3/4 1/2 1/4* 26 3/8 3,531 20
1ACTS-15 10 139 536 2 2 1 1 1/2 1/4* 26 3/8 4,767 30
3ACTS-20 13,3 190 719 2 2 1 1 1/2 1/21 30 1/4 6,356 40
2ACTS-25 16,6 227 887 2-1/2 2-1/2 1 1 1/2 3/42 30 1/4 7,000 50
2ACTS-30 20,3 253 1074 2-1/2 2-1/2 1 1 1/2 1,02 30 1/4 8,100 61
2ACTS-40 27,7 369 1133 2-1/2 2-1/2 1 1 3/4 1-1/22 38 1/4 9,800 83
2ACTS-50 35 435 1313 3 3 1 1 3/4 1-1/22 38 1/4 11,500 105
2ACTS-60 41,7 504 1472 3 3 1 1 3/4 1-1/22 46 14,700 125
2ACTS-70 48,3 610 1555 4 4 1 1 3/4 1-1/22 46 17,500 145
2ACTS-80 56 642 1588 4 4 1 1 3/4 22 46 18,900 168
2ACTS-100 69,3 887 2361 4 4 1 1 1 32 57 7/8 24,500 208
2ACTS-125 87,3 1025 2983 5 5 2 1 1 32 57 7/8 29,060 262
2ACTS-150 106 1375 5731 6 6 2 2 1 52 68 7/8 33,260 318
2ACTS-175 123 1569 5887 5 5 2 2 1 52 68 7/8 40,250 369
2ACTS-200 142 1914 7612 6 6 2 2 1 1/4 1-1/4 52 68 7/8 43,760 426
2ACTS-225 153,3 2112 7744 6 6 2 2 1 1/4 1 1/4 7 1/23 93 61,270 460
2ACTS-250 173,3 2266 7854 8 8 2 2 1 1/4 1 1/4 7 1/23 93 61,270 520
2ACTS-300 206,7 2823 9995 8 8 2 2 1 1/4 1 1/4 103 93 77,020 620
2ACTS-350 248 2996 10164 8 8 2 2 1 1/4 1 1/4 103 93 77,020 744
2ACTS-400 281,7 4776 14984 8 8 4 2 2 2 153 117 91,030 845
2ACTS-500 371 5342 15550 10 10 4 2 2 2 153 117 91,030 1113
2ACTS-600 426 7401 23637 10 10 4 2 2 2 203 133 1/8 125,000 1278
2ACTS-700 516 7848 24127 10 10 4 2 2 2 203 133 1/8 125,000 1548
2ACTS-800 567,7 9636 26356 12 12 4 3 2 2 303 141 175,000 1703
2ACTS-1000 751 10199 27359 12 12 4 3 2 2 303 141 175,000 225,53
Dimensions (ins) Anchor Req’d. Pump Head
Model
No. (Tons)
Height Dia. D1 W B A h h’ C Size(ins) Length
(ins)
ACTS-5 52 34 21-5/8 18 3/4 8 6 1/2 4 3/4 5
ACTS-8 56 34 21 5/8 18 3/4 8 6 1/2 4 3/4 5
ACTS-10 54 42 29 1/2 25 5/8 8 6 1/2 4 3/4 5
ACTS-15 59 46 34 5/8 30 8 6 1/2 4 3/4 5,3
ACTS-20 63 55 44 38 1/4 8 6 1/2 4 3/4 5,6
ACTS-25 71 55 44 38 1/4 8 6 1/2 4 3/4 5,6
ACTS-30 69 62 52 1/2 37 8 6 1/2 4 3/4 6
ACTS-40 75 72 57 7/8 40 7/8 10 8 1/2 4 3/4 6,6
ACTS-50 75 79 66 1/8 46 3/4 10 8 1/2 3 3/4 6,6
ACTS-60 75 79 66 1/8 46 3/4 10 8 1/2 4 3/4 6,6
ACTS-70 80 86 69 3/8 34 1/2 10 8 9 1/2 10 1/2 4 3/4 6,6
ACTS-80 80 86 69 3/8 34 1/2 10 8 9 1/2 10 1/2 4 3/4 6,6
ACTS-100 87 120 92 1/2 46 1/4 12 12 14 12 5/8 8 8,2
ACTS-125 90 130 103 1/8 51 1/2 12 12 14 12 5/8 8 10
ACTS-150 98 130 112 1/2 56 1/4 12 12 13 1/2 16 5/8 8 10
ACTS-175 98 130 112 1/2 56 1/4 12 12 13 1/2 16 5/8 8 11
ACTS-200 118 149 132 93 3/8 12 5 1/8 12 16 23 5/8 8 11
ACTS-225 125 5/8 148 3/8 132 93 3/8 12 5 1/8 12 16 23 5/8 8 11
ACTS-250 125 5/8 148 3/8 132 93 3/8 12 5 1/8 12 16 23 5/8 8 12
ACTS-300 131 7/8 174 3/4 156 1/8 110 3/8 12 5 1/2 12 16 23 5/8 8 12
ACTS-350 133 1/2 188 5/8 169 1/8 119 5/8 12 5 1/2 12 16 23 5/8 8 13,2
ACTS-400 153 1/2 203 7/8 200 3/4 100 3/8 20 5 1/2 12 16 31 1/2 3/4 8 13,2
ACTS-500 154 11/16 219 5/8 216 1/2 108 1/4 20 5 1/2 12 16 31 1/2 3/4 8 13,2
ACTS-600 171 5/8 259 7/8 255 1/8 97 5/8 20 5 1/2 12 16 31 1/2 3/4 8 16,4
ACTS-700 181 5/16 259 7/8 255 1/8 97 5/8 20 5 1/2 12 16 31 1/2 3/4 8 18,2
ACTS-800 194 11/16 299 1/4 295 1/4 113 20 5 1/2 12 16 31 1/2 3/4 8 20
ACTS-1000 202 1/2 299 1/4 295 1/4 113 20 5 1/2 12 16 31 1/2 3/4 8 20

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