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2.6 Compressors

This part of the Energy Efficiency Manual presents energy conservation measures that provide the greatest efficiency in your air conditioning and refrigeration compressors. Most of the energy that is consumed for cooling goes into the compressors of the cooling systems, or actually, into the motors that drive them. There are large differences in the efficiency characteristics of different types of compressors. Also, there are large differences in the efficiency of different models of the same type.

A common cause of energy waste in older chiller is inefficient operation at low cooling loads. False loading is used to avoid cycling the compressor on and off. False loading throws away the portion of the chiller output that is not required. It is often encountered with centrifugal chillers, because of their inability to operate at low output. Especially with older centrifugal chillers, the minimum load is a large fraction of full load. False loading is also encountered with cooling machines having other types of compressors, including screw and reciprocating compressors.

Here you will learn the improvements that you can make to the compressors of your existing large air conditioning machines. In existing facilities, be prepared to exploit the fact that compressors available today are significantly more efficient than the best models available a few decades ago.