Unlike chillers, pumps, and air handlers, the cooling tower must be installed in an open space with careful consideration of factors that might cause recirculation (recapture of a portion of warm and humid exhaust air by the same tower) or restrict air flow. A poor tower siting situation might lead to recirculation, a problem not restricted to wet cooling towers. Similar recirculation can occur with air-cooled condensing equipment as well. With cooling tower recirculation, performance is adversely affected by the increase in entering wet-bulb temperature. The primary causes of recirculation are poor siting of the tower adjacent to structures, inadequate exhaust air velocity, or insufficient separation between the exhaust and intake of the tower.
Multiple tower installations are susceptible to interference — when the exhaust air from one tower is drawn into a tower located downwind. Symptoms similar to the recirculation phenomenon then plague the downwind tower. For recirculation, interference, or physically blocking air-flow to the tower the result is larger approach and range which contribute to higher condensing pressure at the chiller. Both recirculation and interference can be avoided through careful planning and layout.
Another important consideration when siting a cooling tower installation is the effect of fogging, or plume, and carryover. Fogging occurs during cooler weather when moist warm air ejected from the tower comes into contact with the cold ambient air, condenses, and forms fog. Fog from cooling towers can limit visibility and can be an architectural nuisance. Carryover is when small droplets of entrained water in the air stream are not caught by the drift eliminators and are ejected in the exhaust air stream. These droplets then precipitate out from the exhaust air and fall to the ground like a light mist or rain (in extreme cases). Carryover or drift contains minerals and chemicals from the water treatment in the tower and can cau冷卻塔不同于冷卻器，水泵以及空氣處理器，它一定是安裝在一個合適的、空曠的空間，并且需要認(rèn)真考慮可能引起再循環(huán)(相同的冷卻塔里回收部分暖和的和潮濕的排出氣體)或限制空氣流程的因素。冷卻塔的位置安裝不好可能會導(dǎo)致再循環(huán)，然而這個問題不適用于那些濕的冷卻塔。類似的再循環(huán)也同樣會發(fā)生在用空氣冷卻的冷凝器中。由于冷卻塔的再循環(huán)，計入濕球溫度計的溫度不斷的升高，性能也受到了影響。循環(huán)的主要因素是不良的線路設(shè)置，使塔靠近建筑物，或排氣的速度不合適，或者是循環(huán)塔的進(jìn)出口間的間隔不充分。
當(dāng)從一個循環(huán)塔出來的空氣被吸到一個位于其順風(fēng)口的位置時，若干個這樣的循環(huán)塔的安裝就易于發(fā)生沖突。這種跡象類似于再循環(huán)的現(xiàn)象，再傳遞給其余順風(fēng)處的循環(huán)塔。對于再循環(huán)、沖突或者物理上地對循環(huán)塔氣流的阻斷，都會增大冷卻器中冷凝壓力的波動范圍。然而再循環(huán)和沖突，只要經(jīng)過仔細(xì)的計劃和設(shè)計都可以得到避免。
在安裝一個冷卻塔時要仔細(xì)考慮霧的影響，或卷入或轉(zhuǎn)移。霧常出現(xiàn)于較冷的天氣里，當(dāng)潮濕的暖空氣接觸到從冷卻塔里噴射出的冷空氣時，經(jīng)過冷凝后就形成了霧