Every day for the past 20+ years I think I have seen a cooling tower either in person, a picture or just thought about one. As an industrial water treater, cooling towers are part of our day to day lives. I do remember a time before that when I did not know what a cooling tower was and having to learn about how it worked. But I must admit, later, I really didn’t give them too much thought.
Later in my career, I have had the opportunity to work with some of the cooling tower manufacturers, talk about a group of people that have given cooling towers a lot of thought… I soon came to realize that the generic terms that I have for cooling towers did not always translate well when speaking to someone who had such a larger extent of knowledge around cooling towers. Today’s episode is focus around this experience. We are going to learn from cooling tower expert Brett Alexander of Evapco. Brett will share with us terminology and function of the device we all know and love, cooling towers.
Timestamps:
Brett’s background [08:20]
Definition of a cooling tower [16:20]
Closed circuit cooler vs. evaporative condenser [21:34]
Types of cooling towers with regards to air flow [24:40]
Different materials of construction [28:27]
Stainless steel [35:00]
Importance of communication with new customers [46:40]
Fiberglass [48:15]
Quotes:
“The startup and commissioning of a new unit is the most critical time”
“We are trying to educate everyone on the importance of planning ahead”
“You’ve got to know the materials, the construction, and the equipment that you are dealing with”
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