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Januar 12, 2018
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B Chad Edmondson

We’ve talked about manual Series


versus automatic balancing
methods and we’ve talked about Air Management and
curve control versus area control. Pressurization
Now it’s time to consider the Commercial ewage Lift
balance valve tpe impact on the tations
pump control area. Condensing Boiler Plant
Piping
Let’s start this conversation with Cooling Tower and
a question: How much pump Condenser Water Design
head do ou need in a manuall Domestic Hot Water
balanced sstem at part load? Recirculation
Energ Efficient Hot Water
The short answer is, it depends. Boiler Plant Design
To illustrate what we mean, How to Pick a Centrifugal
consider the following Pump
proportionall and manuall How to Read a Pump
balanced sstem with a design Curve
flow of 1000 GPM and 84 feet of Humidification Basics
head. We are using differential Hdronic Balancing
pressure area pump control with Modern Pump election
a control head of 20 ft. Parallel Pumping in
Condenser Water
Balancing is eas enough at full Applications
load with 200 GPM going to all 5 Part Load Efficienc
zones as we can see with the Values
following diagram: Pump Efficienc tandards
team Basics eries
Understanding Primar
econdar Pumping

Variable peed Pump


Control

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But what happens if sstem
demand drops from 1000 GPM to Visit our Contact Page and let
200 GPM? It’s kind of a trick us know what information ou'd
question because we don’t know like to receive.
where the load is. It could be in
Zone A or it could be in Zone E. It
could be split between two or
more zones. In a tpical HVAC
sstem where the zone loads are
never the same, it’s anbod’s
guess where the load is. That’s a
real problem since head loss
varies depending on the location
of the load and the pressure
losses through the branch pipe.

To better illustrate this dilemma


and keep it simple, let’s pretend
that the 200 GPM load is all in
Zone A. If that’s the case our
pressure drop adds up to
approximatel 69 feet. That’s
how much pump head we need
to establish full flow through
Zone A. Depending on the tpe
of pump control we have we will
most likel experience a flow
miss in the above sstem if we
are using manual balance valves.

The black stars on the curve


below represent the head
requirements for the sstem at
200 GPM for the multiple zones.
If we repeat this for other flow
points we can plot the pump
control area for the sstem:

o, pressure drop varies quite a


bit depending on where the flow
happens to be. For example, at
200 GPM, the actual pressure
drop could exist anwhere along
the vertical line of black stars.
This represents a large pump
control area which increases the
potential for flow misses.

What Happens When Automatic


or Pressure Independent
Balancing Valves Are Used?

Now let’s look at the same


sstem utilizing automatic
balance valves or pressure
independent control valves. If
this is the case, then our
pressure drop adds up to onl
approximatel 26 feet to give us
full flow thru Zone A.
We can then calculate the control
area for the same sstem except
with automatic balance valves.
Note our control head setpoint is
now 25 FT to take into account
the pressure drop needed for the
automatic balancing valve.

Because automatic balancing


valves can unload pressure drop,
we are able to decrease the
amount of pump head needed to
full flow Zone A at part load
when compared to a manuall
balanced sstem. The amount
of this decrease depends on the
pressure drop in the branch
headers. Therefore, a manuall
balanced sstem tpicall has a
larger control area than an
automaticall balanced sstem
—something the engineer must
be aware of when designing the
sstem, depending on his tpe of
pump control.

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 Trish Holder  Comment hare

 Balancing, Flow Balancing, Hdronic


Balancing, Pumps And Piping, Variable peed
Pumping
 Variable peed Pump Control eries,
Automatic Flow Control, Curve Control, Area
Control, Control Area, Flow Balancing, Manual
Flow Balancing, Pressure Independent Flow
Control Valves, Automatic Flow Balancing

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