The volume of distribution piping for chilled water in data centers is typically designed to be minimized while maintaining the redundancy necessary to ensure uptime during maintenance or failure events; individual piping designs vary greatly, but they must maintain the ability to fulfill mission critical requirements. Often, it seems logical to assume that the simplest arrangement of piping may be best to meet design requirements, but from an economic standpoint, this decision is not always sound. This paper discusses 1) how capital cost may be optimized by examining various system piping configurations and 2) demonstrates how CCG investigates the economics of designing for fewer larger pipes vs a greater number of smaller pipes.
