3 Refrigeration Retrofits That Can Improve Energy Efficiency
For many food retail businesses, the cost of running refrigeration equipment makes up a significant part of the company's budget. Here are three features that you can retrofit onto your refrigeration system to make it more energy efficient and therefore reduce your running costs.
1. Glass Doors
If your business currently uses open coolers to display products, you can enjoy significant savings simply by adding a glass door to each refrigerated case. Glass doors trap cool air inside the case, reducing the amount of energy that the refrigeration system has to use to keep the products cold.
Glass doors have an additional benefit in that they keep the rest of the store warmer. This can make the shopping experience more comfortable for customers, encouraging them to linger longer in front of refrigerated cases. As a result, they are more likely to browse for longer and discover new products they would like to try.
2. Smart Controls
During the last few years, companies have developed smart technology that can reduce the amount of energy that refrigerated cases use. You can retrofit these controls onto your refrigeration cases to increase their energy efficiency. Smart controls allow your coolers to respond to changes in the ambient temperature rather than running at full capacity the whole time. Some smart controls will even run defrost cycles on your coolers automatically, rather than waiting for a human employee to notice that frost is building up.
3. Insulation on Suction Lines
Insulation is not only useful for keeping buildings warm. It can also help to keep cooling equipment cold. Some older refrigeration systems do not have insulation on their suction lines, which leads to huge amounts of energy being wasted. Even if your system does have insulation on the suction lines, if it is very old, it could be cracked or simply not as good as modern insulation made from the latest materials. Replacing the insulation or adding some to bare suction lines could make a huge difference to your energy bills.
All these retrofits could help to make your refrigeration system more efficient. However, before you start adding new components to your coolers, it is a good idea to schedule a maintenance check for your refrigeration system. An experienced refrigeration technician can identify the parts of your cooling system that are the least efficient and recommend the retrofits that are most likely to help you make significant savings.