REFRIGERATION ENERGY SAVINGS
Energy Savings for your Refrigeration
With the ever-increasing cost of energy, we have been getting asked the same question from our customers... how can we reduce our refrigeration running costs?
Refrigeration energy is one of the major costs in a commercial business and so we have highlighted some areas in which you could save on your energy bills with some rough costs to see if any of the solutions would help your business.
Maintenance
The most cost-effective way to increase the performance of the refrigeration system is maintenance. The key points are to make sure all coils are clear, and that the system is correctly charged with the most energy efficient refrigerant gas so that the system reaches temperature and cuts out as efficiently and quickly as possible. This also applies to air conditioning units that may produce your heating/cooling.
Maintenance Visits from £90 +VAT
Installing Sava Controls
The SavaPlug adjusts the input power based on the refrigerator/freezer motor loading, allowing only the right amount of electricity needed by the motor to do its job. This can result in a 20% reduction in energy savings on refigeration equipment.
Sava Controls are a viable solution to help in lowering operating expenses, and they are incredibly cost-effective, with claims the installation paybacks typically occurring in less than two years.
Sava Controls from £110 +VAT
Door Seals
Broken door seals causes the cold air to escape and warm air to get into cabinet causing longer running time to reach temperature and fridge will turn on again quicker. Replacing broken seals will not only save on electricity but prolong life of the fridge parts that will now be working less often.
Door Seals from £45 +VAT
Change to EC Fan Motors
These new EC fan motors are on average 68% more energy efficient than a standard shaded pole fan motor which are fitted in most refrigeration systems. EC (Electronically commutated) fan motors take AC power and convert it via a small circuit board to DC power resuling in energy savings.
To the side is a comparison of energy consumption of a 14w EC and a standard 10w shaded pole. As shown on the table, the EC fan uses only 10% of the energy consumed by the shaded pole motor. An average, over a 24 hour period, of 31watts for a Shaded Pole motor and 3 watts for an EC motor.
Cabinet EC Fans from £65 +VAT
Large Condenser EC Fans from £215 +VAT
Fan Speed Controller
Refrigeration condenser fans aren’t required to run all of the time that the compressor is on as the ambient air is a lot cooler during the winter.
Fitting a fan speed controller will ensure that the fan is turned on only when it is required rather than running 100% all of the time, resulting in energy savings.
Fan Speed Controller from £170 +VAT
Invertor Driven Condenser
The most power hungry part of a refrigeration system is the condensing unit which has the compressor in it. 20-30% energy savings can be achieved by switching a standard fixed speed condensing unit over to a digital scroll/invertor driven condenser.
DIGITAL Scroll units use compressor capacity modulation and INVERTER units use variable compressor speed to achieve both high energy efficiencies and constant close control of storage temperatures, in turn reducing energy bills.
May be a great option if present condensing unit is already old, inefficient and requires upgraded.
Price from £1,800 +VAT
Cabinet LED Lighting
Refrigeration LED Lights use 70% less energy than traditional fluorescent refrigeration lighting, have zero hazardous constituents, and on average last between 50,000 - 75,000 hours.
When you add up the saving in energy, reduction in maintenance fees, a decrease in HVAC and refrigeration cooling stress, the majority of stores that deploy LED refrigeration lights can recover their initial investment within two years. After this, you're saving every year. Also, your customer’s experience will improve due to the improved store lighting while sales boost due to repeat and new customer purchases.
Price from £180 +VAT
Cabinets with Doors
Changing from open fronted cabinets to ones with doors. This would be the largest investment but would save the most on energy bills. Keeping the cold air in and the warm air out of the cabinet means that the refrigeration system only requires to be a fraction of the size and also start up less often, resulting in up 60% energy savings.
Prices from £5,500 +VAT (fully installed with condensing unit)
Call us today for a FREE survey and see where we can save you money...
