Removing Non-Useful Energy Consumption
Floating Head Pressure Control
If you are involved with a facility that operates a refrigeration system (such as an arena or cold storage), energy consumption may be reduced by lowering the head pressure in relation to outdoor conditions. The head pressure of a refrigeration system is typically set to design conditions, which occur during a very small percentage of the year. This can help save up to 20% on your energy costs.
Strip Doors for Cooled Areas
Strip doors in cooled areas may help maintain the temperature level. Strip doors are lengths of plastic that coherently act as a curtain. Strip doors are typically more economical than an air curtain.
Energy Efficiency Upgrades
If your business involves a refrigeration system, the following efficiency upgrades may help to realize energy savings.
- Condenser performance can be improved by guarding the condensers from direct sunlight. Condenser fans should be cleaned and serviced regularly because dirty condenser coils can reduce the ability to reject heat from refrigeration systems. This results in higher than necessary compressor operation.
- You may want to verify that the evaporator coils serving the coolers are clean. Dirty coils lead to reduced refrigeration capacity and increased energy consumption. The layer of dirt on the coils reduces the coils' ability to remove heat, making the refrigeration system work harder to maintain the temperature set point of the cooler.
- The installation of evaporator temperature sensor and automatic start/stop controls may be viable in some applications. This would allow evaporator fans to run until the desired set point is achieved, at which point the fans will stop, with periodic operation when necessary. This retrofit can help reduce consumption by reducing evaporator runtime when they do not have to run.
Air Curtains for Cooled Areas
Businesses that have cooled areas (blast freezers, cold storage, chilled rooms) could benefit from the installation of air curtain to reduce losses when doors to cooled areas are left open. Air curtains produce a layer of air at a high rate speed that blocks warm ambient air from entering the cooled areas, which reduces run times on refrigeration compressors. It is also beneficial to equip the air curtains with sensors to automatically turn the units on and off when the cooled areas doors open and closed.
