Public Safety Building Cooling Tower Replacement

For this project, LaBella was selected to investigate the cooling tower system, which was near the end of its useful life and deteriorating. The cooling tower was designed as a 2-cell tower but was changed to a 1-cell tower during construction because of fit issues. The cooling tower pumps were nearing the end of their useful life and reducing the cooling plants capacity.

Our team recommended a new 2-cell crossflow type of cooling tower, which features two separate towers that can operate fully independently of each other and provide 452 tons of heat rejection capacity. It was also recommended to raise the unit, as well as for piping modifications to be made to improve tower pumping operation.

These changes would provide less downtime during maintenance as either tower could be isolated and turned off while the other tower remains operational, resulting in partial capacity during maintenance of one of the towers. Additionally, one cell is rated for 100% capacity during cold climate conditions so only one tower needs to be used during shoulder months and the winter, thereby resulting in less energy use and longer tower life due to alternating tower runtimes.