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Air Conditioner Cooling TowerCooling towers that provide air conditioning are fiberglass structures that cool larger buildings like hospitals, schools and some offices. These large scale air conditioning installations are either rooftop units or free standing structures. Many buildings are not conducive to installing air conditioner cooling towers because of the large ducting systems that are components of the system, and unless buildings are designed with these systems, other cooling methods are often chosen. There are two types of cooling systems used—a direct or open circuit tower, and an indirect or closed circuit tower. Direct towers are enclosed systems with internal ways of distributing the warm water. An indirect system involves no direct contact between the air and water that is being cooled and has 2 different fluid circuits. HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) towers are the most common form of air conditioner cooling towers. These systems use ventilation air ducts throughout a building and supplies conditioned air to every room through outlet vents. HVAC systems use a chiller, stored in the tower, which removes heat from liquid by vapor compression. Chillers are composed of a compressor, evaporator, condenser and some sort of metering device. The chilled water is distributed to heat exchangers and then recirculated back to the chiller system. The air stream is dehumidified in this system. Many of these systems are used in climates that have a cold season. In these cases, precautions are taken to prevent the systems from freezing, since many are continuously operating year-round.
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