PlantSizer

Pro

Data-center chilled-water plant sizing, from redundancy to annual energy.

Overview

PlantSizer takes a data-center cooling problem from IT load to an annual energy and cost picture in five chained tabs. Size the plant with your redundancy configuration, work out flows, lift, and design kW/ton, assemble a cooling-tower selection point ready to quote to manufacturers, sweep waterside-economizer hours, then run an hourly annual model over real EPW weather, with an ASHRAE 90.1 baseline comparison, time-of-use and demand-charge economics with optional thermal storage, carbon, and tower water usage.

Key features

• ASHRAE 90.4 minimum load capability: the Equation 6.5 MLC check for data centres, run at 25/50/75/100% ITE load and reported against the climate zone, which pre-fills from the loaded weather file’s degree-days
• EPA eGRID subregion carbon factors, so avoided-emissions figures reflect the grid the plant actually runs on rather than a national average
• Plant sizing with N, N+1, N+2, or 2N redundancy and catalog chiller rounding
• Flows, lift, and kW/ton from CHW/CW temperatures, tower approach, and design wet bulb
• Cooling-tower RFQ selection point driven by the built-in ASHRAE station database
• Waterside-economizer hours and an elevated-CHW-temperature explorer
• Hourly 8,760 annual energy model with published chiller performance curves and VFD staging
• ASHRAE 90.1 baseline and air-cooled alternatives, TOU/demand/TES economics, water and WUE

How to use it

1. 1

   Click PlantSizer on the RIME ribbon (HVAC panel).

2. 2

   Enter the IT load and redundancy configuration on the Plant Load tab.

3. 3

   Set temperatures and approaches on Flows & Lift; pick a weather station for design wet bulb.

4. 4

   Load an EPW file to unlock economizer hours and the hourly annual model.

5. 5

   Review annual energy, cost, carbon, and the CHW temperature sweep on the Annual Energy tab.