This month, January 2005, I am starting a series of newsletters related to energy efficiency in industrial refrigeration.

In these newsletters, I want to share my experience and my knowledge about energy efficiency in industrial refrigeration, because I found a shortage of information regarding this issue. If you have any questions, regarding energy savings in industrial refrigeration, please contact me.

Why should I save energy?

1. Price of electrical energy is going up. Revenue can come and go with economic trend. Energy cost, however, is always there and usually increasing. Energy prices inCanada are cheaper than in Europe and USA. We will have to catch-up with these countries in energy efficiency, as energy prices move higher in Canada.
2. Canada has signed Kyoto agreement on global warming. According to this agreement we have to reduce emissions of green house gases to 6 % below their 1990 level each of the five years from 2008 to 2012. But today our emissions are 20 % higher compared to 1990, so we have to save 26 %. This is a very significant number, but it is achievable for industrial refrigeration.
3. Ontario provincial government is planning to close all coal electrical station by 2007. To keep light on, they want to replace these stations and implement conservation measures. Conservation would be a cornerstone of the plan and the target is 5 % of energy savings.

These reasons show how important it is to save energy in our days. In industrial refrigeration, energy use can often be reduced by as much as 30 %.

Why should I hire energy efficiency consultant?

I heard several times from potential customers, that they have a good contractor and they don’t need energy efficiency consultant to save energy.

Unfortunately, most industrial refrigeration design firms or contractors have little experience, expertise or interest in maximizing energy efficiency. Every professional engineer designs a refrigeration plant for maximum refrigeration load and extreme ambient conditions (design conditions). But refrigeration plant is running at these conditions less than 1 % of total operating time.

How should you run the plant efficiently for the rest 99 %? This is an area where energy efficiency engineer can help you. Experienced consultant shall asses the energy efficiency of existing equipment, identifying each energy efficiency opportunity and outlining each of the viable energy efficiency upgrades.