TRIARC Tank manufactures ASME Section VIII, Division 1 & 2 chilled water buffer tanks for data centers, commercial buildings, and industrial cooling systems.
A buffer tank adds water volume to a chilled water loop to stabilize supply temperature, prevent chiller short-cycling, and (in mission-critical facilities) provide thermal ride-through cooling while chillers restart after a power event.
TRIARC buffer tanks are available in vertical and horizontal configurations with custom capacities, connection sizes, and internal baffle arrangements engineered to your specification, and every vessel is National Board registered.
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| Design Code | ASME Section VIII, Division 1 & 2 (U-stamped); National Board registered; R Stamp available. |
| Capacity | 200–30,000 gallons; larger custom capacities available. |
| Design Pressure | 125 PSI standard; higher pressure ratings available. |
| Configurations | Vertical or horizontal; internal baffles/diffusers engineered to prevent thermal short-circuiting. |
| Material | Carbon steel. |
| Finish | Shop primer standard; custom exterior coatings and internal linings available. |
When utility power fails, servers keep generating heat on UPS, but chillers take minutes to restart. Buffer tanks supply stored chilled water to prevent facility overheating during this critical delay.
Usable Gallons ≈ [Cooling Load (tons) × 24 × Restart Minutes] ÷ ΔT (°F).
A 1,000-ton load requires ~10,000 gallons for a 5-minute delay (at 12°F ΔT). A 500-ton load requires ~3,600 gallons for a 3-minute delay (at 10°F ΔT).
TRIARC calculates your exact tank dimensions directly from your facility's load profile and one-line diagram to guarantee optimal system efficiency.
For general HVAC stability and data center cooling systems, chiller manufacturers typically require a buffer tank sized between 3 and 10 gallons per ton of system volume to smooth temperature swings. While commonly installed in the return line ahead of the chillers to add usable thermal mass directly into the loop flow, TRIARC fabricates connection placements to match your engineer’s exact piping design. Unlike an expansion tank (which connects at a single point solely to absorb pressure changes) a buffer tank actively stores the cooling capacity required to protect mission-critical data center servers during power events. TRIARC manufactures both types of vessels, providing complete sizing support and full documentation packages for seamless submittal and commissioning.
Send us your load, ride-through requirement, or one-line diagram, our engineering team will return a sizing recommendation and quote.
