Temporary Chiller Rentals in Tampa Bay

Keep the building cooling while the permanent chiller is out

A failed chiller, a planned replacement or a long shutdown for plant work can put a building's cooling at risk. A temporary chiller connected to the chilled-water loop can carry the load in the meantime. Blume owns rental chillers and also works with a rental partner, so temporary cooling can be sized to your building.

Blume owns 120-ton chillers, along with smaller 20-ton and 40-ton chillers. For sizes in between those, a rental partner supplies the equipment. The first conversation is about which unit suits your load, your connection point and your power.

A rental chiller is only half of the job. The unit has to be placed, piped to the loop, powered, controlled and checked, and eventually disconnected, and the plan for all of that is what makes a bridge work.

A temporary cooling plan starts with the building, not the unit

The right rental chiller depends on facts about your building, so the first step is a short evaluation of what the temporary equipment has to do. The questions are practical. What is the cooling load, and is the whole building affected or only part of it? What chilled-water supply temperature do the air handlers need? How much flow does the loop circulate, and can the existing pumps handle the extra resistance of temporary piping? What electrical service is available near where the unit would sit? Where is a workable connection point on the chilled-water piping, and are there isolation valves to make the connection without draining the whole system?

Sizing deserves care. Nominal tonnage alone does not decide whether a rental machine will work. The selection also has to account for the leaving-water temperature the building needs, the entering-water conditions the machine will see, outdoor conditions for an air-cooled unit, the type of fluid in the loop, and the flow and pressure the system can accept. A machine that is the right size on paper but cannot be connected, powered or controlled is the wrong machine.

The result of the evaluation is a defined scope: which unit, where it sits, how it connects, how it is powered and how it will be operated and removed.

When temporary chiller rental makes sense

Rental chillers serve several different situations, and the plan differs in each.

Unexpected failure. When a compressor, refrigerant circuit or other major component fails and parts or labor will take time, temporary cooling bridges the gap. The areas that need cooling first are identified, and the remaining capacity of the plant is considered, because sometimes a smaller bridge is enough. While temporary cooling runs, Blume keeps working on your chiller, so if we can get it running or fixed, we are right there to do that. Outage handling is described on our emergency chiller service page.

Planned replacement. A replacement means the old machine is disconnected before the new one is running. Temporary equipment lets the building stay in use while that happens, and planning the connection points before the shutdown avoids needless disruption. See chiller replacement.

Maintenance and plant work. Piping modifications, major service and other mechanical work sometimes require equipment to come offline. A temporary unit makes it possible to decide in advance what stays in operation.

Supplemental capacity. If a plant cannot meet the load at peak load, temporary capacity can fill in. Before assuming that more chiller capacity is the answer, though, it is worth checking flow, controls and air distribution, since a system with poor delta-T or blocked coils may not benefit from added capacity.

Air-cooled and water-cooled rental units

The two machine types need different things from the site.

An air-cooled rental unit rejects heat to outdoor air. It needs space, airflow clearance around the condenser, power and access to the chilled-water loop. It is often the simpler option where a clear outdoor area exists, such as a parking area or a service yard, and a surface that can carry the machine's weight.

A water-cooled rental unit needs a way to reject heat through condenser water, which usually means a cooling tower, condenser pumps, piping and utilities in addition to the chilled-water connections. That makes it a larger project, and the condition of the existing tower and pumps matters.

Some applications, such as process cooling, call for leaving-fluid temperatures lower than building air conditioning needs, and low-temperature operation brings its own requirements for fluid compatibility and freeze protection. Share the required temperature, fluid type, process load and schedule early so that the options can be judged against the real need. Specific tonnage, voltage, refrigerant, temperature limits and configuration are confirmed for the unit that is actually supplied.

What the project covers, from delivery to removal

The proposal defines what is included for your site. Depending on the application, a temporary chiller project may include:

• Evaluation of cooling requirements and the existing system connections.
• Selection of a unit from Blume's own rental chillers or from the rental partner.
• Delivery, placement and removal coordination.
• Temporary chilled-water piping or hoses, valves and insulation.
• Pumping requirements and verification of water flow.
• Electrical power or temporary power coordination.
• Startup and operating checks.
• Attention to the equipment during the rental period.
• Disconnection and transition back to the permanent system.

Where temperature or flow control is needed, the plan also covers how the temporary equipment interacts with the building's permanent controls. A rental unit that fights the building automation system can create comfort problems of its own, so controls coordination is part of the design, not an afterthought. Capacity, duration, access and installation requirements are confirmed for each project.

Compare temporary cooling with repair and replacement

Temporary cooling protects building operations while permanent work is completed. It can also become expensive. Once delivery, installation, piping, power, rental extensions, service and removal are counted, a long temporary cooling project can sometimes cost more than replacing the failed equipment.

For that reason the comparison should happen before a rental is committed. The options are to repair the existing machine, to cool only the critical areas, to install temporary cooling, or to go directly to replacement. Sometimes a short rental while a replacement is completed is the best plan. In other cases, replacement equipment is obtainable and the shutdown is manageable, so direct replacement makes better use of the budget. Blume prices a replacement option alongside repair.

The factors that matter go beyond the rental charge: total project cost, equipment availability, expected downtime and what it means to operate without cooling. See chiller repair for the repair side of the comparison and HVAC capital planning for how replacement fits a longer plan.

What drives the scope of a rental project

Since this page does not publish rates, it helps to understand what shapes a project's overall scope. Capacity and duration are the obvious factors. So are delivery and placement: a unit that must be craned over a building is a different job from one set on an open pad. The length of the temporary piping run, the pumping that run requires, the electrical work to feed the machine and the effort of startup and removal all add up.

An accessible connection point and adequate existing power simplify a project. A long pipe route, tight access or a need for temporary power complicate it. This is why Blume develops a site-specific proposal, and why a few photos of the mechanical room, the piping and the proposed placement area help so much.

Planning ahead, with a standby connection

The easiest temporary cooling project is one planned before the failure. A building can be prepared by documenting where a temporary chiller would sit, how it would connect, and what power is available. In some buildings a permanent tie-in with isolation valves is a modest change that turns a major plumbing job into a simple connection. Most commercial accounts that Blume manages have redundant cooling that Blume installed or recommended, so emergencies are not necessarily emergencies.

If you manage a building and want to know where it stands, start with commercial chillers in Tampa Bay and our chiller maintenance service page. To discuss a rental, call Blume at 727-330-9131.

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