Refrigeration and Cooling

and also - Motors and Drives

So, first things first, a simple refrigeration system:

The basic components are the 1. compressor, 2. the evaporator and 3. the condensor.  Although some of these systems can be incredibly complex and visually intimidating there are several common threads for investigation in every situation:

• Can we reduce the primary load?
• Can we cut auxiliary power demand?
• Can we stop refrigerant leaks?
• Can we improve system control?

Let's look at some of these in turn to give you some ideas.

So what kind of things will I look at in your cold store / refrigeration installation?  First - the "low hanging fruit"!

Door Management

Product Loading (works both ways - I have come across many instances of large cold stores with virtually no contents firing away on all cylinders for what exactly, I wonder.....

We will address all aspects of your cold store demand for example:

Is your defrost cycle correctly set up?   Is the condensor nice and clean?

Lots to think about isn't there - and this is just the tip of the iceberg (LOL) - don't even get me started on Head Pressure Control........................just call or email me to discuss your chilling energy effectiveness.

                             Air Conditioning

Of course cooling for most of us means something far less industrial and often not really needed here in the UK - in my humble opinion - however air conditioning is here and probably here to stay so let's start using it properly.  I mean what's wrong with the photograph?

In general - and here I hope you will forgive me generalising because I am sure YOU don't fall into this category - occupiers of buildings with air conditioning have no idea how to operate the systems or behave when the systems are operating - and in case you haven't spotted it - one of the windows is open in this fully air conditioned office - wrong on every level!

The number of buildings I visit to find this exact same situation beggars belief - and some have air con ON, heating ON and windows OPEN - ALL AT THE SAME TIME - and yes of course I am shouting about it - it is energy madness!!!!!!

Control, dead-bands, competing systems, free-cooling opportunities - the list goes on and on but the savings to be accrued to your business can be very significant.

Breaking News

I also have a couple of colleagues who can provide independent Air Conditioning inspection services to meet the Energy Performance of Buildings Reg's which came into force in 2007 and which place a legal responsibility on any persons operating an air conditioning system to have it inspected within the deadlines given below.

•  First inspection of all existing air conditioning systems with an effective rated output of over 250 kW cooling capacity must have been completed by 4 January 2009 - did you comply?
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• First inspection of all existing air conditioning systems with an effective rated output of over 12 kW must be completed by 4 January 2011 - that was last week in case you missed it!!!!!
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• New air conditioning systems over 12 kW installed after Jan. 2008 must be inspected within 5 years of going into service

Call me or email to discuss your air conditioning system energy effectiveness

Motors and Drives

Motor efficiency is an often overlooked area when companies are addressing energy savings - mainly because it is viewed as a major investment and therefore not in the "low hanging fruit" category and as a result it is put on the back burner.  There are  various measures that can be taken to ensure motorised pant is run as efficiently as possible - that is before we get to the engineering stuff.

• Switch them off - the very first thing you should investigate when it comes to operating a motor is does it need as long as it currently does?  The number of fans, conveyors, mixers and so on that I find running when not really needed beggar's belief.  Ideally of course we should be able to rely on operators to switch systems off when they are not needed - but heck we live in the real world so that doesn't happen very often.  Timing mechanisms can be very effective to ensure switch off "out of hours".  "Magic eyes" can automate switch off of conveyors when they are empty.  Ventilation fans can be controlled by environmental sensors as well as timers to ensure they only operate when needed. 
• Soft Start - pretty common technology for pumps that can substantially cut energy using when a motor starts up and used on conveyors to ensure smooth delivery of product.  When appropriate these are very useful.
• Fit the correct motor in the first place - sounds obvious doesn't it but all too often we find that design engineers have over specified - this happens a lot in the conveyor market where a motor is identified for duty then a correction factor ("just in case") is added then the next motor up is selected.  nett result the motor can be as much as double the required size and your bills rocket.  Also if you plan to maybe fit variable speed controls at some stage in the future make sure the motors you fit today are inverter rated - you'd be amazed at how many motors don't like to operate at reduced speed due to problems with their lubrication systems.
• Feed-in tariff's - this is not well known but users of industrial motors can get money back from their energy supplier by selling excess energy produced braking back to the grid using a feed-in tariff (same idea as with solar photo-voltaics and wind turbines!).  I can help you employ the necessary technology - just email me to make an enquiry