Free cooling systems are used for cooling plants, generally industrial or process cooling. The advantage of these systems is mainly the use of the low winter ambient temperatures for the cooling in order to save energy during the cold periods of the year.

Two kinds of free cooling are existing, direct and indirect.

Indirect free cooling
The indirect free cooling is generally used in water chillers: water is cooled exploiting the external air during the period of low external ambient temperature. This allows a drastic reduction of the compressor operating hours with a consequent energy saving from 30 up to 60%.

Direct free cooling
Cold external ambient air, after being appropriately filtered, is injected in the locals to cool, generally data centers. The external air is drawn directly from the unit. This is done using a dumper controlled by the microprocessor.

RC Group is as a matter of fact the first company having produced a compact chiller with free cooling system and today is world leader in this technology.
Different accessories for the free cooling system like the free cooling optimizer (patent of RC Group) are the demonstration of the level of avant-garde reached from RC Group.
The free cooling optimizer allows operating the free cooling chillers with a variable water flow. In combination with the displacement series Heat Hunter the free cooling optimizer allows important energy savings.