Keep Your Refrigeration Cool

Affordability

With a small up-front investment, your refrigeration system can be more efficient, reducing both your energy bills and your equipment maintenance costs.

Cost savings

Low-cost solutions, such as reduced lighting levels or relocating air cooled condensing units to a cooler location (even outside), can generate substantial savings.

Environmental considerations

The compound effect of businesses across B.C. running more efficient refrigeration helps reduce the need for new energy generation facilities.

What you need to know

• Consider lighting levels at 0.5 watt per square foot instead of one watt per square foot. This will save you money on lighting and saves on refrigeration by reducing the amount of heat in the refrigeration system.
• Place external lighting on a motion-sensor switch. If the space adjacent to your refrigeration unit is not a work space (i.e. requiring full-time lighting), use controls  to ensure it goes on only when needed. This will also reduce heat in the environment surrounding the unit and reduce cooling costs.
• Use compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) or fluorescent tube lighting [PDF, 106 Kb] inside and outside your refrigeration unit. These produce less heat than incandescent lamps. Retrofitting lighting is eligible for financial incentives under the Power Smart Product Incentive Program.
• Increase insulation thickness in walls, floors and ceilings to reduce the required capacity and system run time.
• Install dehumidifier units to control humidity. Humidity can greatly affect the load on the refrigeration system.
• Locate your refrigeration equipment away from any external sources of heat.
• Consider ways to utilize waste heat. Your refrigerator cools goods inside by rejecting heat to the outside. This heat represents energy you can use in your business. You may be able to harness it for space-heating or domestic water pre-heating. This can also help lead the heat away from your refrigeration unit, improving its efficiency. On any new installation, add a desuperheater to use refrigeration waste heat.

FAQ

Why is it important to keep the area around my refrigeration equipment as cool as possible?
It is important for two reasons: Refrigeration equipment, at it most basic level, is an insulated box with a cooling element (the evaporator) on the inside and a heat rejector (the condenser) on the outside.

• If the air around the outside of the box is hot, the heat will move through even the best insulation and warm up the inside of the refrigeration equipment. The cooling equipment will then have to work harder to maintain the cool temperature.
• Heat transfers more efficiently with a greater difference in temperature. Most small pieces of refrigeration equipment have their condensers attached to the unit. Thus, if the immediate area is hot, the difference in temperature between the refrigerant in the condenser and the outside is smaller. Keeping the area cool means more efficient heat transfer between the refrigerant and the air.