INDUSTRIAL REFRIGERATION


Efficiency in times of spiralling energy prices


By Jason Webb, managing director of Electronic Temperature Instruments. T


he relative normality of 2019 feels like an awfully long time ago.


The main political issue of the day was Brexit,


rounded off by a general election that saw Prime Minister Boris Johnson elected on the back off several pledges relating to the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union. How times have changed since. Just a matter of weeks into the new government’s tenure, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, a crisis which has caused enormous health, social and economic hardship to people and businesses alike. And just as the early knockings of 2022 felt as if a semblance of that pre-pandemic normality may return, war struck Ukraine, the knock-on economic effects of retaliatory sanctions only just starting to be felt. The backdrop against which UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak


delivered his Spring Statement was grim. According to the Office for Budge Responsibility (OBR), we


are on course for the “biggest fall in living standards in any single financial year since Office for National Statistics records began in 1956-57”. Meanwhile, inflation will hit a 40-year high (almost 9%) by the end of the year and economic growth forecasts have been revised significantly downwards. Truth be told, inflation and cost of living pressures were


already spiralling before the invasion of Ukraine. The repercussions of the pandemic were starting to bite, with supply crunches and volatile energy markets beginning to be felt via inflated costs for virtually everything we need to run businesses, not least fuel and electricity. Recent headlines have been dominated by the rise of the


energy price cap, with the OBR predicting household bills to rise to an eyewatering average of £2,800 a year from October. For businesses, the situation is even more stark. We are not offered the same protections as domestic consumers, and also have to factor in enormous spikes in the cost of fuel which make transportation operations ever more costly.


Making every kWh count We have daily conversations with customers who are faced with rising operational costs, particularly those in highly energy intensive industries that carry industrial refrigeration requirements.


A typical commercial refrigerator uses around 70kWh a day, which for catering companies amounts to approximately 40% of the electricity typically consumed across all key appliances. It is therefore easy to see just how much financial pressure is facing these businesses when the price of what is already their


18 May 2022 • www.acr-news.com


biggest overhead is growing exponentially. These firms, like many others, are facing a huge problem. They are confronted with a dilemma of pursuing efficiencies to remain competitive and secure customers or passing on higher costs to clients which could result in losses in business. While efficiencies in many cases unfortunately translate into job losses and redundancies (take P&O Ferries as an extreme example), it also means becoming savvier when it comes to energy consumption. Many are already headed down that path for sustainability purposes, but now energy efficiency has become an imperative simply in order to survive. Here, I will outline just a few examples of how firms we


are working with are making such efficiencies in regard to industrial refrigeration.


Managing periods of high and low demand A key area where efficiencies can be made is how firms deal with fluctuations in demand for refrigeration space. Caterers often operate through periods of high and low


refrigeration usage. For instance, schools and universities will store far less food during holiday periods, while event caterers will also encounter busy and quieter periods throughout the year depending on their bookings – think festive season spikes versus quiet months such as January. Other companies, meanwhile, will experience fluctuations in refrigeration use in line with their food and drink delivery schedules. There are some simple steps firms can take to boost energy efficiency performance in and around these flux periods. Let’s start by looking at times when demand for refrigeration is low. Here, a common example in recent times would be catering operations in buildings where occupation is lower than usual in light of increased home working. Here, catering staff should re-evaluate their stock and delivery patterns to avoid unnecessarily full fridges, a move which will also cut down on waste and prevent food from spoiling. In some cases, refrigeration units may be able to be switched off entirely.


At the other end of the scale, there are times when demand


for refrigeration spikes. These can include workers returning to offices, hospitals experiencing influxes of patients during winter months, and schools when pupils return from holiday periods – situations where overfilling fridges becomes a realistic possibility.


Overfilled fridges consume more energy. To counter against this strain, caterers should utilise technological devices to measure and record temperature readings on a regular


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