Theme Park Rides New Valve to Balanced Chiller System
In February of 1999, Universal Studios (Orlando, FL) opened the doors to its newest theme park, Islands of Adventure. With this premiere, another grand event was in the making: a major, dynamically balanced hydronic chiller system, touted as the first in the world, was being brought online.
Balancing the Islands of Adventure theme park chilled water distribution system was a major concern for Universal Studios. One concern was that the first facility is only 200 ft from the chiller plant discharge, while the last facility is 1,500 ft from the plant discharge. This means that the first facilities off of the distribution system could receive a water differential pressure of a little over 100 psi. Ordinary two-way control valves cannot operate properly with differential pressures that high. Valves at the end of the distribution loop do not see pressure differentials this high.