Hydronic Balancing of closed cooling/heating systems

What shall it bee: pressure driven, flow driven or both (inspired from hydraulics-oil based
systems)

Achieving hydronic balancing is more than just quick adjustment performed on a system to check if
flow exist and everything turns to the proper direction.

If in hydraulics the problem related to pressure/flow dependency in closed circuits can be easily
solved by pilot pressure line or more recently directly from the pump by controlling the rotational
speed, in case of cooling/heating coolant closed system is not possible to control the pump directly.

Most of the pumps use a differential pressure principle inlet-outlet to form a fluid flow with a
pressure-flow dependency expressed by the means of a pump curve. At the same rotational speed
(fixed) there is very little thing to do directly from the pump to modify pressure-flow.

Some will say that if you have the same pressure or flow overall the system than everything will be
fine.

If we are a little bit curious about what is happening inside a closed system foreseen with adjustable
elements (opening-closing diameters) on the pipes related to thermal transfer elements then we can
easily observe that closing or opening the adjustable elements will influence the pressure-flow
characteristics of the pump as per the pump curve. By other means what was initial pressure-flow at
the outlet of the pump has changed mainly because of the fact that modifying the position of the
adjustable elements forces the pump to adjust itself. The pump can operate either at max flow or
max pressure or in between.

So, what to do about that? The easiest way to begin is to adjust the biggest diameters adjustable
elements and if the system is symmetrical, once you adjusted an element just apply the adjustment
on the corresponding element from symmetrical branch. Then you can proceed with smaller
diameter elements. Passing from the max flow regime of the pump to intermediate flow-pressure
regime as per the pump curve without reaching max pressure regime of the pump of course if all
adjustable elements are settled as per design is a notable indicator that you are on the right path.

Good old flow thru pipes hasn’t change that much, doesn’t matter if used to increase comfort,
maximize efficiency or even to overcome fabrication fundamental problems of the pipe systems
layout.

Disclaimer: This is a pamphlet us it at your own risk