How to Size Water Cold Pack or Chilled Water System Air Conditioning Flow Rate (Imperial Gallon Per

Minute, Igpm)

Once you know how much is your building cooling load (Refrigerant Ton, Rton), the next step is to size your water cold pack or
chilled water system pump, how much is the flow rate of the designed pump required?

Here are simple and typical consultancy ways of calculation.

Example: The building cooling load is 500 Rton

For Condensed Water System, the pump flow rate required is= 500 Rton x 3 Igpm/Rton = 1500 Igpm

For Chilled Water System, the pump flow rate required is = 500 Rton x 2.5 Igpm/Rton= 1250 Igpm

Hope that the above can help in your air conditioning system pump design sizing.

Air Conditioning Design: Sizing of Air Conditioning Circulating Pump

Once we know the total flow rate required for the Chilled Water air conditioning system as mention in
my previous post How to Size Water Cold or Chilled Water Flow Rate, next step is to design or select
the circulating pump based on the designed flow rate.

Total Cooling Load: 1000 Rton

Cooling System: Chilled Water System

1st Step: Calculate the Flow Rate Required and Pump Flow Rate.

1. Designed flow rate per ton Qd = 2.5 Igpm (refer to my previous post for this value)
2. Designed pump flow rate Q = 2.5 x 1000 = 2500 Igpm
3. Number of pump selected = 2 Duty (in case maintenance, or break down still have 50%
capacity) 1 Standby
4. Apply 5% safety factor (depend on how accurate is the calculation, safety factor are used to
cover all the uncertain factor i.e. workmanship, losses and etc), Total pump capacity = 2625
Igpm
5. Circulating pump capacity for each pump = 2625/2 = 1312.5 Igpm
2nd Step: Calculate the Total Pump Head Required

Total friction or total pump head required are based on the level difference between the chilled water
air conditioning circulating pump and the highest Fan Coil Unit or Air Handling Unit. Besides that, have
to consider on the loss in the chilled water piping in equivalent pipe length which depending on the
pipe size and pipe fitting.

As it related with the plumbing services, it will be covered on the next topic. For this example, we just
assume the total pump head required after calculate all the friction losses and safety factor is 135ft
Conclusion:

The designed circulating pump capacity for the Chilled water air conditioning system is as below:

• Total pump: 2 Duty 1 Standby

• Flow rate for each pump: 1312.5 Igpm
• Pump head: 135ft
From there, a pump that suits the above requirement shall be selected.

I want to submit pump head calculations for chilled water(HVAC). Please provide me standard formate and charts
I want to submit pump head calculations for chilled water(HVAC) FOR 80 Floor building at dubai. Please provide me standard formate and charts to prepare chilled water pump head calculations

I did this sort of thing for over 30 years. Do it the way engineers do it (You will have to anyhow). Contact
several pump manufactures and ask for their Engineering Manuals. Many post them on the Internet. The
calculations are in there done for you. You need only figure out the needed Total Dynamic Head (TDH)
and look it up on the pump head charts in the manual.

TDH is given in Feet of Water, you usually can neglect velocity head and deal only with Pressure Head
and Elevation Head. The manuals have conversion charts for pressure in pounds per sq in to feet of
water.

Elevation Head is easy it is the height you want to pump to. Say 20 feet per story then you need 1600 feet
of head to get water to the top of an 80 story building with zero pressure. That's a lot so you may need to
put tanks on lower floors and re-pump.

Figure the pressure you need after you lift the water, convert to feet of water, add to the Elevation Head
and you have TDH.

I'll look for a website with a good manual and post it if I find it

Try: http://www.tigerflow.com/

Or GOOGLE "HVAC PUMPS"

for hydronic applications, we can say that:

1. For closed systems: Pump head = the sum of all friction pressure drops Where:
Friction pressure drop = piping pressure drop + terminal unit pressure drop + source
unit pressure drop* + valve pressure drop + accessories pressure drop.
2. For open systems: Pump head = the sum of all friction losses plus the static lift of
the fluid plus the pressure head.

* The "source unit" is defined as the boiler, chiller, or heat exchanger, which creates the hot
or chilled water.
Total Head = Suction Head + Delivery Head + friction loss in suction pipe + friction loss in
delivery pipe + friction loss in fittings + (velocity head in delivery pipe/9.81)

all dimensions in mtrs.

Suction head = height from bottom of suction pipe to centre of pump inlet

Delivery head = height from centre of pump outlet to the delivery point

friction loss in suction pipe = approx 0.21kgs/sq.cm per 30mtrs

friction loss in delivery pipe = .07kgs/sqcm per 30mtrs.