Pettinaroli valves for HVAC and data centre cooling

HVAC and data centres: the same physics, less forgiveness

Comfort cooling in an office tower follows the people in it. Data centre cooling follows the IT load, day and night. Both are hydronic systems, and both fail the same way when they are not balanced: water takes the easy path, so units near the pump get too much flow and the far ones too little. Our guide to hydronic balancing and PICV for commercial buildings explains the problem, and what a PICV does explains the valve that solves it.

The difference is the cost of getting it wrong. A warm office gets a complaint. A warm data hall puts equipment at risk. That is why the valve at each cooling unit matters more here than anywhere else in the building.

Valve kits for CRAH units, fan coils and AHUs

Pettinaroli groups its data centre range as Data Center Solutions. At its core are pre-assembled valve kits: everything a cooling unit needs to connect to the chilled-water pipes, in one package. Pettinaroli assembles and tests them off site, so there is less work on site and fewer joints to leak.

• A PICV that limits flow and controls temperature in one body
• A FilterBall: a ball valve with a strainer built in
• A flushing bypass, so the pipes are cleaned without pushing dirt through the control valve
• Test points and pressure and temperature gauges for commissioning
• Modulating actuators, insulation shells, flexible hoses and unions

Small and medium CRAH units take compact pre-fabricated kits. Big units take the same idea at a larger size, with an equal percentage PICV, a 3-way flushing ball valve and an isolation ball valve with a built-in Venturi for reading flow. In ordinary HVAC the same approach, under Pettinaroli's PCS name, covers fan coils, chilled beams and air handling units. Pettinaroli also provides BIM files for its kits.

Sizing a PICV for each unit

A PICV only holds its flow inside its working range. So sizing starts from the schedule, not the pipe size: the design flow of each unit, the pressure available across the circuit, and the signal the BMS sends to the actuator. Send us the schedule and we size it valve by valve.

• Design flow per unit, in l/h: the number everything else follows
• Available differential pressure, worst case and best case
• Actuator type and control signal, to match the BMS
• New loop or existing one: dirty water points to Dynasty

Our published position holds here too: for terminal units we recommend mechanical PICV over electronic PICV. A data centre kit pairs a mechanical PICV with a modulating actuator, so the BMS controls temperature while the valve itself holds the flow. The reasoning is in mechanical PICV vs electronic PICV.

The main plant: butterfly, check and strainer valves

Before the water reaches any unit, the chiller plant and headers need big-bore valves. Pettinaroli's industrial valve line covers them in ductile iron, for ANSI class 150 and EN 1092-2 PN16 flanges:

• BF3SE and BF4SE lug and wafer butterfly valves, 1¼″ to 24″, with gear or IP68 electric actuators
• SB2V static balancing valves with test ports, 2½″ to 16″
• ST2D Y strainers with test ports, 2″ to 24″
• CK2WD dual plate wafer check valves, 2″ to 24″
• GF1C flexible joints, 1¼″ to 24″

For choosing between them, see wafer, lug or double-flanged butterfly valves and Y-strainer vs basket strainer.

Commissioning and handover

A cooling system is only as good as its commissioning. Pettinaroli builds the tools for it into the valves: test points on the PICVs, Venturi devices for reading flow, flushing bypasses that keep dirt out of the control valve, and gauges on the kits. The commissioning engineer can read and set each unit without cutting into the pipe.

How we work

“We don't just sell parts, we sit down with their engineers to make sure they get the right solution.”

Optimus Distributor, on technical support

What to send us

Consultants, M&E contractors and data centre operators can start with whatever they have. A unit schedule with design flows is ideal; a pipe layout or a list of units also works. Price, lead time and stock are answered by the sales desk in Subang Jaya, and our engineers check the selection before you order. The process is in how ordering and technical support work.