Best Practice for Energy Efficient Cleanrooms: Control of Chilled Water System

Cleanroom energy benchmarking data shows that there is a variety of chilled water system designs and operation efficiency for cleanroom facilities in high-tech industries. Operating efficiency of chilled water systems is critical to the overall energy efficiency of the chiller plant, which may have a significant impact on energy use for such facilities.

Together with fans for delivering air to and from cleanrooms, chiller plants usually serve cleanroom facility and adjacent spaces simultaneously and use significant energy and water. Figure 1 shows benchmarked HVAC energy usage in a semiconductor cleanroom facility. In this case, the chillers and pumps account for more than half of the total HVAC energy use. Therefore, it is important to design, select, operate, and control chiller plants to achieve high efficiency and to lower life-cycle costs for cleanrooms and their adjacent spaces.