McKim & Creed provided engineering services for replace chillers and cooling towers at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.
The project replaced two 300-ton chillers and one 600-ton chiller in a Central Utility Plant composed of five 600-ton centrifugal chillers and two 300-ton chillers. The CUP is located in the basement of the Charlotte Douglas International Airport with no direct access to the CUP from the outside. Existing pumps and piping connected to existing chillers required placement of the new chillers in the same basement CUP room for economic reasons.
New chiller equipment was too big to fit through doorways and other existing space limitations, making it impossible to replace the existing equipment as factory assembled equipment. The solution, provided by McKim & Creed, included replacement of the equipment with disassembled three 590-ton capacity magnetic bearing centrifugal chillers with VFD, based on Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA). The existing cooling towers, condenser water pumps and primary chilled water pumps were replaced with cooling towers using VFD for tower fans matching chiller capacity; which, enabled minimized consumption of power and increased operational efficiency. The new chillers were disassembled at the factory and brought into the chiller room in smaller sections and reassembled by factory trained technicians to maintain factory warranty. Also included were modifications to the structural steel supporting the cooling towers on the roof, to the refrigerant monitor and refrigerant exhaust ventilation to meet the ASHRAE standard 15, and to the electrical service to meet higher requirements for larger chillers and pumps. The work was completed when the building remained occupied.