Chillers

Massive amounts of energy, in the form of electricity, are pumped into the MagLab's resistive magnets. All that energy produces tremendous heat in the magnets, which is removed through a very thoughtfully engineered chilled water system. Four powerful chillers play a key role in this system.

Although they use freon, the same stuff that's in your fridge at home, these machines cool a lot more than cucumbers. With a rating of 2,000 tons (a reference to chilling capacity, not weight), each of our four chillers is 400 times more powerful than a residential A/C system. If the lab was in the ice business, we could crank out 2 billion cubes a day. In fact, in addition to cooling magnet water, this system air-conditions the entire MagLab – no small feat during sultry Tallahassee summers.

Each 16.5-ton (as in weight) chiller puts about 3,625 kg (8,000 pounds) of refrigerant (R-22) through the same heat transfer cycle repeated (on a much smaller scale) inside your fridge dozens of times a day: it’s compressed, condensed, expanded and evaporated, drawing heat away from the warm water.

By Kristen Coyne