HVAC Project-of-the-Month

These photos depict the stages of a Turbocor compressor retrofit, as performed on a 450-ton Carrier high speed 19XL centrifugal chiller by American Chiller Service, San Leandro, CA.

• The project was obtained for ACS by Dan Johnson.
• The work was performed by Rob Bottimore and his team.
• The customer was a well known national retailer in the San Francisco Bay area.  

A new solar and LED lighting retrofit project was commissioned first, which caused the chiller to be oversized. This was resulting in constant short-cycling. The options were limited.

“The machine was ‘landlocked’ in a basement, in the center of the building, and replacement costs were well outside the client’s budget,” Bottimore explained.

“After an eddy current was performed, verifying the integrity of the heat exchanger tubes, American Chiller Service Inc. adapted Danfoss Turbocor compressors to the existing heat exchangers, essentially building a brand new chiller in place.”  

R-22 refrigerant was recovered and the chiller was converted to refrigerant R-134A.

“The result was an extremely quiet 420 ton, oil free, variable speed machine that could unload to 42 tons, to better handle the reduced cooling load while extending the useful life of the chiller,” Bottimore said.

SUBMIT YOUR PROJECT-OF-THE-MONTH photo(s) to Terry McIver, at [email protected]. Photos must be high-resolution (300 dpi minimum) in order to appear in our print magazine. Lower resolution photos will appear online. Project must be well-described.