What We’ve Learned from 100,000 Hours of Tower Data

Cooling Towers

Cooling tower insights that operators, ESG teams, and regulators need to know

After collecting over 100,000 hours of operating data from cooling towers across power plants, manufacturing facilities, data centers, and campuses, we’ve gained deep insight into how these systems really behave in the field. The verdict?

Every cooling tower we’ve seen was underperforming.

That doesn’t mean every tower was broken—but in every case, there was measurable opportunity to improve thermal efficiency, reduce energy or water waste, or respond to performance drift earlier.

Here are the top operational lessons learned from deploying TowerPulse™ across diverse sites—lessons that matter for operations, compliance, and sustainability alike.

1. Thermal Performance Degrades Faster Than People Think

Even a small shift in tower approach temperature—just 1–2°F—can dramatically impact downstream performance. Over time, without real-time feedback, these shifts go unnoticed.

What we’ve seen:

• Towers operating at degraded efficiency for months or years without intervention

• Process systems compensating with excess energy usage

• Seasonal or operational changes obscuring early signs of fouling

  
  

Takeaway: Most sites wait for obvious failure. Continuous thermal tracking flags underperformance before it becomes costly.

2. Fan and Pump Energy Waste Is Hidden in Plain Sight

Tower fans and pumps are often run on fixed schedules or outdated control logic. Without thermal performance data, sites can’t tell when they’re running too hard—or not hard enough.

What we’ve learned:

• Flatlined fan speeds, even when tower load is low

• Missed opportunities to modulate with VFDs

• Avoidable energy waste of 20–30% in many cases

  
  

Takeaway: Tracking thermal efficiency lets you sync energy input with cooling demand—automatically.

3. Water Treatment Changes Need System-Level Feedback

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Without thermal data, it’s hard to know if a change in treatment program actually worked—or if it had unintended consequences.

What we’ve seen:

• New chemical blends introduced with no measurable improvement

• Fouling events traced back to well-meaning but poorly timed treatment shifts

• Missed opportunities to reduce chemical use because no one tied performance to feed rates

  
  

Takeaway: TowerPulse™ connects water treatment strategy to real cooling outcomes—closing the feedback loop.

Final Thoughts: If You’re Not Measuring, You’re Losing

Cooling towers are often treated as background infrastructure. But the reality is they’re performance-critical systems, and small inefficiencies add up fast—in operating cost, carbon footprint, and water usage.

After 100,000+ hours of monitoring, we’ve learned that every site has room to improve, and most never realize how much they’re leaving on the table.

Want to see how your towers stack up? Talk to Infinite Cooling about a pilot or thermal audit using TowerPulse™.