Güntner dry coolers are winners in Vegas

USA: Güntner dry coolers have been called into play at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to handle increased load on the HVAC system while also decreasing water consumption.

The three Güntner high density adiabatic dry coolers with hydroBLU were deployed at the Forum Shops mall at Caesars Palace to replace the existing evaporative coolers.

The luxury mall, which comprises 675,000ft² of tenant space, first opened in 1992 and houses high-end boutiques from the likes of Balenciaga, Giorgio Armani, Breitling and Tom Ford.

When the resort recently decided to revamp its existing air conditioning, water usage was the major concern in choosing a new system due to restrictions imposed by the Southern Nevada Water Authority. 

The federal government has acted to limit the amount of water that is withdrawn from Lake Mead and the Colorado River, and the states that rely on its supply are taking measures to cut consumption.

Lake Mead is America’s largest reservoir. Formed by the famous Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, it provides water for nearly 20 million people, as well as substantial areas of farmland. However, due to drought and climate change, Lake Mead’s water level has been falling drastically over the past decade. In May, 2022, its capacity was measured at just over 25%.

For the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which includes Las Vegas within its area of operation, a whole tranche of new measures was recently introduced, such as the banning of new water features and fountains on the famous Vegas Strip, a moratorium on new golf course development, and restrictions on the size of new residential swimming pools.

Significantly, the Authority has also banned the installation of evaporative cooling in new commercial developments. Research has shown that evaporative cooling is the second largest consumer of water in Southern Nevada, after outdoor irrigation, and uses around 10% of the region’s annual allotment of water from the Colorado River.

According to Dave Johnson, the Authority’s deputy general manager, the main concern is the kind of large cooling towers found at Las Vegas resorts.

“Water scarcity has become a major issue in the US, and companies are increasingly turning to water-saving adiabatic cooling systems such as ours,” said Miguel Garrido executive president of Güntner US.

The Güntner units combine dry-cooling heat exchangers with Güntner’s pre-cooling system based on humidification pads. As long as the temperature in the cooling system doesn’t exceed a pre-set threshold, no cooling water is used. Once the threshold is passed due to a peak in load or ambient temperature, humidification of the pads is activated and dynamically adjusted by the intelligent control module.

In this case, on-site analysis by Güntner and the local HVAC contractor established that the units could run dry up to a temperature of 77ºF (25ºC), meaning the water savings compared to a conventional water cooled system would be considerable and would potentially earn the client a significant cash rebate under Southern Nevada’s Water Efficient Technologies programme.

Güntner’s business development manager, Alex Schafer, believes that the combination of regulation and cash incentives will encourage many other companies in Las Vegas to follow the same route as the Forum Shops mall. 

“This was a high-profile installation on a building that’s known all over the world, and it shows the way forward,” he says. “Demand for water is starting to outpace supply, so we need to consider alternative modes of heat rejection that allow us to manage the resources that we have.”