Configuring water-cooled chiller plants in a series counterflow (SCF) arrangement splits the lift between two machines to enhance the operating efficiency of the plant.

Water-cooled chiller plants are traditionally designed with the evaporators and condensers piped in parallel, which makes the compressor in each machine have to do the entire cooling delta T and lift. Lift is the difference between leaving evaporator pressure and leaving condenser pressure. This is often approximated by the leaving temperatures.
Figure 2: Annual chiller efficiency map of a single parallel chiller. Courtesy: TLC Engineering for Architecture[/caption]
This article originally appeared on TLC Engineers’ website. TLC Engineers is a CFE Media content partner.Â