Central Plant Builder Nuances, Validations and Restrictions

| Introduction

The chiller plant builder in the CPM has its own set of nuances and restrictions. These can be with respect to the placement of the equips, connecting the equips or movement of equips in the builder Canvas.

Users will need to pay attention to these, which can be predefined key combinations or mouse click combinations, or a key + mouse click combination that helps the user achieve the necessary output.

Below are those nuances and restrictions:

| Movement of parent equips with/without associated devices.

• Use “Shift + left click” to move parent equipment with associated devices.

• Use “Left Click” to move the sub of parent equipment.

• Click on Equip to move the equipment only.

| Connections between Parent Equips

• Connect the parent equips (chiller/Cooling Tower/Boiler/Building Load) using similar colored headered pipes.
• Create the following possible connections between parent equips.
  • one to one (one chiller to one cooling tower/ one chiller to one building load)
  • One to many (one chiller to multiple cooling tower/ one chiller to multiple building loads)
  • Many to one (many chillers to one cooling tower/ many chillers to one building load)
  • Can user hot water plant as well for above-mentioned scenarios
• Avoid the following connect between parent equips. :
  • chilled water supply line with chilled water return line
  • condenser water supply line with condenser water return line
  • hot water supply line with hot water return line.
  • chilled water lines with condenser water lines or hot water lines
  • condenser waterlines with chilled or hot water lines
  • hot waterlines with chilled or condenser water lines and vice versa

| Constraints for Making Connections between Equips

• Use the 4-headed arrow to move the equips/associated devices.
• Use "+" to draw connections between header equips and parent equips.

| Validations for a BTU Meter

• BTU meter comes with temperature sensor. By default, the temperature probe sensor is always dropped onto the canvas.
• If the BTU meter is on the supply line, then the corresponding temp probe sensor should be placed on the return line and vice versa.

• If the BTU meter is placed on Chilled water lines (light blue/dark blue), then the corresponding temp probe sensor cannot be placed on the condenser/ boiler water lines (dark green or light green/dark red or light red lines).

| Validations for a Plant

• A plant is only associated with one site.
• A site can have multiple plants.
• Each plant can have multiple draft states and a single published state.
• A Draft state can be edited by any user.
• A Published plant can also be made into a draft state. edited and republished.
• A Plant cannot be published unless all the connections are made between header pipes and parent equips (chiller/cooling tower/boiler).
• The “Edit Plant” CTA is available only for the support users and not  Airoverse for Facilities users.

| Deleting an Equip

• Use the "Delete equip" CTA in the configuration pop-up window to delete the equip along with the configuration saved.

• Use “shift+right click” and "X" CTA to only delete the equipment but not the configuration saved.

Note: You can delete a pipe if it has no BTU meter/ pump on it. else the toast to delete all the BTU/pumps on connecting pipe displays when tried deleting.

• Use the "Delete equip" CTA in the configuration pop-up to delete a header pipe.

| Rearrange and point selection of associated devices.

By default, in equip config the points corresponding to associated devices are selected.

• User can select/de-select the points related to associated devices before connections are made between header and parent equips.

• The change in the order of arrangement of associated devices (temperature sensors /valves) on parent equipment (chiller/cooling tower/building load/boilers) is only possible before connections are established between the header pipes and parent equips.

| Representation of Water Flow

The flow of water from one equipment to another is represented by animation and is dependent on the running status of the equips and the open/closed status of the corresponding pumps.

| Status Ring Enlargement for Fit to Screen View 

The status ring is slightly enlarged to view the status of the equipments when fit to screen is applied.

| Representation of Disconnected Equips

Any disconnected equips will be highlighted if the equipment connections remain disconnected while the user attempts to publish the plant in plant builder. The following error message will be displayed under this condition.

Once the connection is established, the plant can be published as accordingly.

| Alignment of Click View Points 

Alignment of click view points is dynamic in nature. In case if no points are available, all other points on the left and right side of the view dynamically shift to center align themselves.

| L-Joints to Header Pipe

Enabling parallel configurations between the parent and other parent equipment without the use of a header pipe offers greater flexibility in creating advanced parallel pipe combinations in CPM, which are commonly used in real-world scenarios. This enhancement allows for the continuation and expansion of existing parallel-supported connections.

| Representation of Equipment through Animated GIF

The cooling towers, pumps, chillers and boilers are represented through animation to determine the status of the equipment whether it is active or not running. This helps in avoiding any confusion regarding the plant equipment status.

This is applicable for master view, hover view, and click view where the equipment status is ON.

| Building Block Component Update

Latest building block components have been added and replaced by the existing ones for the 2-pipe and 4-pipe variants as below:

2 Pipe Variant
4-Pipe Variant

| Pipe Sequence after Pipe Color Change

The pipe sequences in a CPM plant should not cross overlap regardless of the connection type. This is applicable for lead and lag connection, dual temp connection, PHE connection, Bypass connection BTU meter and pump placement.

| Color based on Equips & Sub-Equips

Based on the equip and tags, color of the sub-equip will be changed for each equip.

For Chillers Facing South-East direction

For Condensing Pipes facing South-West direction

For Hot Pipes Facing South-West Direction

| Pump Validations for Pumps

• Condenser water pumps can only be dropped on condenser water lines.
• Hot water pumps can only be dropped on hot water lines.
• Chilled water pumps can only be dropped on chilled water lines.

| Central Plant Tagging

CPM queries the tags to identify equipment and devices which are associated with it.

for more information on the CPM tagging refer to Central Plant Equipment Tagging