Chillin’ in the Winter

How to keep your glycol chiller operating reliably with old man winter breathing down your neck.

Most people enjoy a snow filled holiday season, but all that weather can have some adverse effects on your glycol chiller. There are areas of the nation that experience extreme weather conditions. Heavy snowfall, freezing rain, ice storms and extreme low ambient conditions. Here are a few topics to keep in mind as the winter chill approaches.

Your glycol chiller is built to handle the worst conditions that mother nature can bring. That being said, snowfall is a hard one to combat. Excessive snow builds up around the chiller can prevent the proper air flow through the condenser causing nuisance shutdowns or alarms. Shoveling snow is not something most people look forward to, but it is an essential part of keeping your chiller operable. Keep in mind the minimum clearances of the chiller. Three feet of clearance on the intake side and open to free air (no obstructions) on the exhaust side. Heavy snow may bring treachery in other forms as well. With a snowpack on your roof and an unsuspecting chiller sitting below, ouch! All that snow can slide off a building and crush your glycol chiller. Ice can have the same effect. Heavy icicles breaking from an overhang can cause severe damage.

Usually with precipitation comes low ambient temperatures. If you have your glycol chiller located in an area that sees temperatures dip down to the low single digits, we should talk about your glycol mixture. G&D chillers operate at 35% glycol to water ratio (26.5 brix) but increasing that mixture to 40% (29.3 brix) in extreme low ambient conditions may be recommended. That effectively lowers the freeze protection of the glycol to an acceptable level. Even in temperatures below 0°F, a 40% mix coupled with keeping a pump running will prevent the piping from freezing. Keeping that flow moving through the process is key. It’s the same concept as rivers and lakes. Flowing river water will rarely freeze, but stagnant water in lakes or ponds will.

It is highly recommended to leave power to your glycol chiller during winter. However, these winter storms can bring unexpected outages. A power outage with extreme low ambient temperatures can be disastrous to your glycol chiller. If the outage lasts only a couple hours, you won’t really have anything to worry about. In the event of an extended outage, some steps need to be taken to protect the chiller. The best option would be a generator. This generator does not need to be sized large enough to power the entire chiller, just big enough to keep your pump running to provide flow and ultimate freeze protection. At an absolute minimum, a generator to run a space heater. Placing the heater in front of the chiller and covering it in tarps will keep it from freezing solid. The worst-case scenario would be to drain the glycol reservoir and all your plumbing to avoid freezing. Think about a glass bottle full of water in the freezer. It will expand and break.

Winter storms could also prevent you from even being able to reach your facility. The roads may be impassable. Keep an eye on the weather report and take precautionary measures as needed. If you don’t expect to be able to make it to the facility, leave the chiller running. Keep tank valves open, even if they are empty, to keep glycol moving. This can also help put an ambient load on the chiller to keep glycol temperatures up. These tips will also apply if you are planning a production shut down during the winter.  If you have any questions about chillin’ in the winter, just give us a shout!