
Improving Chiller Efficiency with Helios Tube Cleaning Systems
Here in sunny California, industry has to do its part to conserve water. Making more efficient use of natural resources is essential for the health of the planet.
To help improve water efficiency, Institutions that require water cooling for their towers will want to use as little H2O as possible. That’s where Helios Tube Cleaning Systems can make a difference.
How the Helios TCS Work
In an industrial setting or large building, cooling towers move heat via water that recirculates. While this might have been part of industry best practices decades ago, the world is starting to wake up to the problem of using water inefficiently.

Cooling towers are not going to go away anytime soon, but there is a new way to make them work better, using less water.
What’s needed is a way to lower the temperature of industrial processes or work spaces more efficiently and less expensively by tightening up the Cycles of Concentration or CoC.
Ordinarily, you maintain cooling towers by releasing water periodically to get rid of built-up minerals and other dissolved solids. Then, the operator has to add more clean water to continue with the cooling process. Otherwise, you risk damage from corrosion on the heat transfer surfaces. That is inefficient and will increase the total cost of ownership of the system.
The Helios Tube Cleaning System employs ongoing mechanical cleaning to avoid fouling the surfaces where heat exchange takes place. You can therefore save water as you boost your cooling tower’s CoC.
Benefits of Helios TC Systems
There are 3 main benefits to the Helios TC Systems:
- Saves over 10% chiller ENERGY SAVINGS by continuously cleaning chiller tubes. This can be over 3% of the total building power saved just by running daily cleaning procedures.
- SIMPLIFIED MAINTENANCE. Now only the balls become service items to change out quarterly which can be done without any chiller downtime. Chillers are normally taken off line for several days a year for this kind of cleaning. Take that downtime away and it’s just simpler to operate a central plant.
- There CAN BE WATER SAVINGS – by allowing a harsher setting on cooling tower water as we reduce the concern for scaling when we are continuously cleaning.
As chillers at large college campuses are mega sized these benefits are magnified. Thus, many of our case studies center around saving maintenance work at large college mega central plants which are over 3000 tons cooling. But Helios technology can provide these benefits on ALL water-cooled central plants.
New Helios Systems Will Activate Later in 2022
Our first few Southern California installations of these Helios systems are going online this year. We think this technology is the future, where open cooling towers and large shell and tube chillers are involved.
Our initial Southern California units will be placed at LAUSD San Pedro high school and Chanel in Beverly Hills on glamorous Rodeo Drive. The units are in production now.
However, we’re not content to install these systems at the high school level. We are committed to using this product at the largest universities in California. Furthermore, we anticipate applying Helios systems in critical places like data centers and hospitals where they don't have time to pause their vital work.
What is revolutionary about the Helios design is that it cleans the chiller every day, preserving performance while avoiding the downtime that traditional tube brushing requires.
Ready to Use Less Water & Energy With State-of-the-Art Cooling Technology? Connect With Us Today
As a leading HVAC business with branches in San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Francisco, Vertical Systems is devoted to promoting sustainable water and energy solutions. The benefits are clear. Using less water is more efficient and saves you money. It also can serve as a point of pride in your marketing materials.
If your organization is ready to “go green” and start using much less water in your cooling processes, we’re standing by to assist. To learn more about our approach to using state-of-the-art technology with Helios Tube Cleaning Systems, please connect with us today.
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