ENERGY SAVING EQUIPMENT Foster Refrigerator develops +stayclear E


nergy efficiency underpins all our design and innovation development decisions at Foster, and has done for several years, writes Chris


Playford, market and development director, Foster and Gamko. How well a product will perform in the busy professional kitchens we serve, remains the primary driver for buyers. Quite rightly it’s our primary driver too.


More and more we’re looking at how energy can be saved throughout the lifetime of the product – it’s no good a fridge hitting the best energy-rating when a customer buys it, to then lose efficiency within months. Our customers are investing in a quality fridge which must maintain high levels of efficiency throughout its life.


I really believe that a product is only as good as the sum total of its parts – so each of these must be designed carefully to be robust and as energy-efficient as possible. We are passionate about making the right choices for our customers, based on their needs and feedback, so we consider everything. This includes the system design, choice of refrigerant and refrigeration components through


to how it is manufactured and the energy impact of manufacturing. We go even further to consider the smaller details such as the type of door hinges and how easy day-to-day-cleaning and access is. Traditionally a lot of energy is wasted if a fridge is battling with a blocked condenser – a very common problem as dust and grease in kitchens are dragged into the fins and then need cleaning. We looked at ways to improve the design of the condenser. The result is the +stayclear, which a study into condenser technology, showed an improvement in the operating efficiency of a one- year-old fridge, lowering energy consumption by 35.8%.


Our study also found a unit fitted with +stayclear saw only a 16.3% reduction in airflow over 12 months, compared to 94.7% with a fin condenser, which is a significant energy saving. Foster uses a combination of independent verification, such as ISO standards, and environmental quality assessments, like the Carbon Trust, in conjunction with our robust internal processes. We want to make the best products


for our customers all the time, every time, so our stringent testing makes sure this happens. Our recent re-certification with the Carbon Trust Standard comes on the back of huge investment in our manufacturing facilities and saw us significantly reduce our overall energy consumption by 10% since 2009.


Much as we look at every element of our products to ensure efficiency, we also focus on each area of our business. We strive to reduce waste wherever we can and use local suppliers to reduce the carbon footprint across our supply chain – every step counts.


As part of a £500,000 investment, we have extended our test facility to be one of the newest and largest of its kind in Europe. This means we have streamlined the testing process, benefiting our customers with shorter lead times and also means we can be completely confident that we’re testing our range accurately. We know that any results or grades we get can be replicated in other testing houses and our customers have peace of mind.


Gree’s VRF – air conditioning with the sun T


he world’s first direct-drive photovoltaic (PV) powered VRF system from Gree, one of the world’s largest air conditioning manufacturers, can save end users up to 30 per cent of energy costs. The units can be used to cool, heat or produce hot water.


Conventional PV powered VRF systems collect solar energy and produce electrical power, feeding it to a DC/AC converter for use by the unit. Gree’s system uses an advanced power management system which eliminates the need for the converter, feeding electricity from the PV array directly to the VRF.


This removes the efficiency losses associated with power conversion, boosting the system’s efficiency and cost-effectiveness. When conditions allow, surplus electricity can be fed back into the grid, giving end users an income from feed-in tariff, further tilting the economics in favour of PV- powered VRF.


Says Roberto Mallozzi, managing director of Gree UK: “Using electricity generated by the sun to power air conditioning is not a new idea. However, significant technical challenges have so far prevented widespread adoption. This new development by Gree opens the way to PV-powered


VRF air conditioning as a mainstream technology. What is particularly exciting about the advance is that it makes possible widespread adoption of PV-powered systems in relatively high northern latitudes, such as the UK. “Conventional wisdom says PV systems might be able to power a


relatively low capacity split system, but Gree has made it work with commercially viable VRF system; a proposition on a quite different scale with significant technical challenges to overcome.” The Gree PV-VRF range covers duties of 22kW to 134kW and can cope with pipe runs of 165m and rises of 90m.


The system can be used with existing or new solar panels, and with as much or as little panel area as space or budget dictates. One of the first installations of Gree PV VRF was in Dubai,


where even using a very limited solar array the system is saving end users some 30 per cent of air conditioning running costs.


A system installed recently in Malaysia includes more than 200 indoor units, cooling offices and manufacturing facilities at Yeh Brothers Wood Works (Malaysia) SDN. It is powered by an array measuring 20,000sqm. Only a third of the power generated is required by the VRF system – the remainder is used for manufacturing and general office use.


www.acr-news.com August 2016 35


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