What a Cooling Tower Does
A cooling tower rejects heat from a building's refrigeration or process system to the atmosphere using evaporative cooling. Hot condenser water from water-cooled chillers, industrial process equipment, or other heat sources flows through the tower, where a portion of it evaporates. The evaporation absorbs heat (approximately 1,000 BTU per pound of water evaporated), cooling the remaining water. The cooled water returns to the chiller condenser to absorb more heat, completing the loop.