Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Chapter
17
Pumps for Closed
Energy Storage Systems
17.1 Introduction
Closed energy storage systems consist of pressure tanks for both hot
and chilled water as well as ice systems with open tanks that are
described as ice-on-tube systems. The growth of energy-conservation
efforts has resulted in the use of a number of different procedures for
storing energy. Closed energy storage systems differ from the open
storage systems of Chap. 13 in the storage of the energy at system
operating pressures; this results in the ability to maintain system
pressure throughout the energy storage system.
17.2 Pressure Tanks for Energy Storage
Pressure tanks have not been popular because of the cost of the tanks
themselves. Of course, it is the responsibility of the water system
designer to determine the most economical means of storage of energy
on a specific installation.
Closed tanks offer the specific advantage of operating at system
pressure. All the pressure-control devices needed in open storage
tanks are not required for these systems. The tank can be located in
the system at the point most advantageous for the operation of the
equipment and the storage of energy.
For example, on chilled water systems, the pressure tank can be
installed in the chiller bypass, as shown in Fig. 17.1. With this
arrangement, the chillers can be operated at peak efficiency and,
therefore, at the lowest kilowatts per ton. On very light loads, the
459
chiller shuts down, and chilled water is drawn from the tank; this
eliminates chiller operation at loads less than 50 percent of design
capacity, where the overall kilowatts per ton are high. This arrangement provides a very simple but effective means of storing chilled
water without control valves, storage pumps, and all the other appurtenances required with open tank systems.
When pressurized chilled water is used for energy storage, the volume
of the chilled water piping system must be addressed, since some chilled
water systems have many tons of cooling stored in the normal piping.
On older systems that may have been oversized in terms of piping, a
sizable tonnage of cooling could exist in the piping itself. The volume
of water per foot of pipe in gallons has been included in Table 2.7 to
assist in this evaluation. The tonnage stored is calculated by Eq. 17.1,
where the specific heat of water is assumed to be 1 Btu per pound per
degree F.
Vs 8.34 (T2 T1)
ton h stored
12,000
Vs (T2 T1)
1439
(17.1)
461
Tank valve
Glycol
chiller
Cooling system
temperature
control valve
Open tank
with glycol coils
Heat exchanger
Glycol pumps
T
Chilled water system
Variable-speed
chilled water pumps
Figure 17.3 Closed glycolsystem for large ice storage facilities.
463
464
465
This type of ice storage system requires a minimum of special provisions and controls for the pumping system, since it is a closed system
where system pressures are easily controlled. There should be no concern for cavitation in the pumps other than the usual precautions
that should be taken for any system.
Most of the pumps for these systems are either single- or doublesuction volute-type pumps. Standard bronze-fitted construction is
very adequate for these applications.
Many of the standard pumping and distribution systems for ordinary chilled water systems are usable with internal melt ice storage
systems.
17.6 Bibliography
ASHRAE Handbook Fundamentals, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and
Air-Conditioning Engineers, Atlanta, Ga., 1993.
Design Guide for Cool Thermal Storage, ASHRAE, Atlanta, Ga., 1993.