Thanks for the responses to my industrial fluid cooler question. It
turns out the curves in DOE2 are good for inlet temperatures no greater
than about 90 degF - I would be way out of bounds. A good point was also
made that fouling would probably be a serious matter at those elevated
temperatures. Back to the drawing board...

R. Lynn Qualmann, P.E.

All,

I have a need to simulate the performance of a hypothetical fluid cooler
applied to a condenser of a distillation process. I am trying to
determine the energy consumption that is being avoided by the
installation of heat exchangers that are effectively serving the
condensing function. I have data to determine actual hourly values of
heat rejection (BTU/hr), fluid (not water) temperatures and flow rates
and should be able to obtain hourly weather data for the period
corresponding to the data. I can get design values for the fluid cooler
from a vendor. I only need to determine the energy consumed by the fluid
cooler - no other building energy is of interest. I am thinking I may be
able to do this in eQuest, assigning a process load to the fluid cooler
after developing a schedule from the data I have and putting a meter on
the fluid cooler. My concerns are that the fluid is not water (I have
been unsuccessful in the past specifying non-H2O cooling fluids) and
that the temperatures (cooling from 235 degF to 200 degF) may be out of
range for the algorithms. Anyone see any flaws in this approach before I
propose it?

Thanks in advance.

R. Lynn Qualmann, P.E.