Arguably one of the most straightforward areas where we can reduce energy use is to remove on site duplication of plant.
By this we are referring to the situation where valuable waste heat from a wine wall/display refrigeration system is rejected from an area but at the same time the restaurant or hotel is using fossil fuels to provide space heating or hot water.
This situation can be found in any hotel/restaurant where the operational activity has a significant heating or hot water demand that can be operating alongside an equally significant rejected cooling load (heat energy) from a display or storage refrigeration system.
Basically high value FREE waste heat is rejected from a wine wall/display system and at the same time a boiler could be operating in the same area using costly energy.
Hence the production of heat energy is duplicated at very high cost by the boiler and this is an ideal application where the waste heat from the refrigeration system could be effectively and economically used.
Historically the specification of heating and hot water systems has been treated as a completely separate area to the specification of display refrigeration equipment.
However we are now entering an era where this duplication of plant in terms of refrigeration equipment and boilers is becoming extremely visible and is viewed as being unacceptable due to increasing energy costs and equally important carbon reduction targets.
As a result of this increasing awareness Wine Walls Direct has developed a bespoke heat recovery package that is designed to counter the duplication of existing heating and cooling systems.
Garry broadbent of Wine Walls Direct comments,” We are seeing that once a specifier or restaurant/hotel operator understands that they are wasting costly heat energy which is already produced by their refrigeration system they immediately become interested in heat recovery”, continuing,” our approach is to determine how much waste refrigeration heat energy a user is rejecting and to also understand the heat energy they require, we then design a bespoke wine wall/display heat recovery system to suit their application as there is no point proposing heat recovery to an end user if there is an insufficient demand for the recovered heat”.
Any heat recovery/recycling system must be correct for the application and this is where Wine Walls Direct gains a complete understanding of the clients system that includes the actual hot water and heating usage details.
The reason for this level of diligence is to ensure that the amount of heat recovered is completely in line with the amount of heat required by the site in order to provide the maximum level of payback.
Hence it can be pointless installing a heat recovery system that either produces too much or too little thermal energy as the investment in the capital plant is at risk of not providing an attractive return on investment.
Therefore the message coming through appears to be very clear in that recovering waste heat from refrigeration and cooling equipment is a huge opportunity.
However to gain the maximum benefit from any investment it is vital that the right level of planning is applied which is where the diligent approach of Wine Walls Direct can provide real benefits for the specifier.