How to Size a Cooling Tower
Introduction
When it comes to process cooling or HVACR systems, a cooling tower is one of the most important pieces of infrastructure you can invest in. Its primary job is to reject unwanted heat from your building or process equipment into the atmosphere, maintaining safe operating temperatures and supporting overall system efficiency.
Getting the right size for a cooling tower is crucial. An undersized cooling tower can’t effectively remove the required heat load, leading to higher operating temperatures, reduced efficiency, and potential damage to connected equipment. On the other hand, an oversized tower incurs higher upfront costs and can lead to unnecessary energy consumption, increased water usage, and higher maintenance demands throughout its lifecycle.
In this guide, we’ll discuss the key considerations that go into sizing a cooling tower effectively. Whether you’re a facility manager, an engineer or a project planner, this step-by-step approach will help you make informed decisions that balance performance, efficiency and long-term cost savings.
Why Cooling Tower Sizing Matters
A cooling tower works by transferring heat from your building or process water into the atmosphere. Warm water from your system enters the tower, where it is distributed over fill media and cooled through a combination of air flow and evaporation before returning to your system at a lower temperature. This continuous cycle ensures that chillers, process equipment, and HVAC systems operate within safe and efficient temperature ranges.
But this process only works as intended if the cooling tower is correctly sized.
An undersized cooling tower can’t reject enough heat, forcing your equipment to run hotter than designed. This leads to:
- Inconsistent or insufficient cooling performance
- Increased strain on connected systems (e.g. chillers, compressors)
- Reduced equipment lifespan and higher risk of unplanned downtime
An oversized cooling tower may seem like a safe choice, but it can create problems:
- Higher capacity costs for equipment that isn’t fully utilised
- Increased energy and water consumption
- Greater maintenance requirements over the tower’s life
Cooling tower sizing has a direct impact on system performance, energy efficiency and total lifecycle cost. A right-sized tower delivers consistent cooling while optimising resource usage and protecting your wider infrastructure investment.
Key Factors That Influence Cooling Tower Sizing
Proper cooling tower sizing starts with understanding the key parameters that define your system’s cooling requirements. Each of these factors plays a role in determining the tower’s capacity and efficiency.
Heat Load (BTU/hr or kW)
Heat load is the total amount of heat that your cooling system needs to reject, usually expressed in BTU/hr (British Thermal Units per hour) or kW (kilowatts). It’s the cornerstone of cooling tower design because it dictates how much heat must be removed to maintain safe operating conditions.
This value can typically be sourced from chiller specifications, process design documents or equipment datasheets. For industrial applications, process engineers often calculate heat load based on the energy added to the water during production or manufacturing.
Water Flow Rate (GPM or m³/hr)
The flow rate, measured in gallons per minute (GPM) or cubic metres per hour (m³/hr), reflects how much water circulates through your cooling system
The cooling tower must be able to handle this volume of water efficiently. If the tower is undersized for the flow rate, it will struggle to achieve the required cooling, reducing system performance.
Temperature Range (Hot Water In and Cold Water Out)
Two temperature points affect tower performance:
- Hot water temperature (inlet): the temperature of the water entering the tower.
- Cold water temperature (outlet): the temperature after cooling.
The difference between these two is called the range. Alongside this, the approach (the difference between the tower’s cold-water temperature and the ambient wet-bulb temperature) is a key design parameter.
Unlike dry-bulb temperature (the air temperature), wet-bulb temperature considers humidity, providing a more realistic measure of the cooling tower’s evaporative potential.
Ambient Conditions
Cooling towers don’t operate in a vacuum; local climate plays a role in performance:
- Wet-bulb temperature: this is the lowest temperature achievable through evaporative cooling and varies based on location and season.
- Seasonal vs peak loads: towers should be sized to handle peak conditions (often summer) but also optimised for part-load efficiency throughout the year.
Redundancy and Future Proofing
Finally, consider your long-term needs. For mission-critical applications (data centres, hospitals, manufacturing), sizing may include N+1 redundancy (an extra tower or cell to cover failures or maintenance).
Modular or scalable designs allow for increased capacity if your cooling demands grow.
How to Size a Cooling Tower
Sizing a cooling tower doesn’t need to be overwhelming. By breaking the process into clear steps, you can quickly establish the parameters needed for an effective design.
Start with the total heat rejection your system generates. This is usually provided in BTU/hr or kW.
Identify the peak wet-bulb temperature at your site. This value is critical because it represents the lowest achievable cooling temperature under peak humidity conditions. Sizing for summer peak wet-bulb conditions ensures your system performs reliably during the hottest, most humid days of the year. Wet bulb temperatures can be sourced from ASHRAE data.
Common Sizing Mistakes to Avoid
Even experienced teams can fall into common pitfalls when sizing a cooling tower. Avoiding these mistakes can save significant time, money and frustration over the system’s lifecycle.
Relying on the Outdated Rule of Thumb
While shortcuts may provide a starting point, they rarely deliver an accurate or optimised solution. Every system is unique, so using detailed calculations will always produce a better-performing design.
Ignoring Wet-Bulb Temperature Variations
Designing for average conditions instead of peak wet-bulb temperatures can lead to cooling shortfalls during the hottest, most humid days of the year. Always size for worst-case ambient conditions to ensure reliable performance when your system is under the greatest load.
Oversizing ‘Just in Case’ Without Cost Analysis
It’s tempting to oversize a cooling tower as a buffer against unexpected demand, but doing so unnecessarily inflates capital costs, energy consumption and water usage. A modest safety margin is good practice, but oversizing without justification can harm efficiency and increase the total cost of ownership.
Forgetting to Factor in Redundancy or Modular Needs
For mission-critical systems, a single tower isn’t enough. N+1 redundancy or modular configurations help maintain uptime during maintenance or unexpected failures. Planning for future expansion at the design stage also avoids costly retrofits later.
When to Bring in an Expert
While basic cooling tower sizing can be handled with calculations and manufacturer tools, there are situations where professional support is essential.
- Complex or variable loads: if your system supports multiple processes, fluctuating heat loads or unusual operation conditions, expert modelling ensures your tower performs across all scenarios.
- Mission-critical applications: for facilities like data centres, hospitals and manufacturing plants, even brief cooling disruptions can be catastrophic. Aggreko’s team of experts can design systems with redundancy and resilience built in.
- Regulatory or environmental compliance: in sectors with strict water usage, discharge or energy-efficiency regulations, expert guidance ensures your cooling tower meets all requirements without unnecessary overspending.
- In emergency scenarios: when unplanned failures or extreme weather events threaten cooling capacity, temporary or replacement systems can be rapidly deployed by Aggreko’s specialists to restore operations and protect equipment.
Engaging a cooling specialist, like those at Aggreko, early in the process delivers tangible advantages:
- Optimised performance: a correctly sized and configured tower works more efficiently, extending the life of your connected equipment.
- Reduced operating costs: we can help minimise energy, water and chemical consumption, lowering your total cost of ownership.
- Compliance assurance: from water treatment to energy standards, specialists ensure your system adheres to current regulations and industry best practices.
Correctly sizing a cooling tower is a strategic decision that impacts performance, efficiency and long-term operating costs. If you’re planning a new installation or upgrading an existing system, our team can provide properly sized cooling towers to keep your operations running smoothly.
Contact our team today to discuss your requirements and ensure you have the right system in place.