Updated: September 28, 2018
Free Coolers Save Packaging Manufacturer £120k a Year
The Challenge
With a focus on sustainability and the environment, our packaging manufacturing customer planned to upgrade their cooling plant across multiple sites to:
- Reduce energy and water consumption
- Reduce operational costs
- Boost and future-proof environmental profile in the food packaging sector
- Operate to industry best practice
- Reduce risk associated with maintaining chilled water systems
The Solution
We began with an on-site consultation and analysis of existing equipment. We undertook a review and a more detailed Energy analysis to compare the running costs of existing equipment against more efficient alternatives.
The cost of utilities, size of the unit, refrigerant, ambient temperatures, cooling capacity and power input are all taken into consideration to demonstrate the reduction in kWh and associated cost savings. The energy consumption and precis of the cooling equipment was then presented with several options to make improvements, along with the amount of energy that could be saved and the expected payback period. Following agreement on the improvements to be made, a full project proposal and system design was created by our in-house team for the following:
Free Coolers
- Relocating from internal location to external location 4 off 54kW i-Chillers with the addition of a Free Cooler (reducing power costs from £49k down to £13k – saving £36k per annum)
- Cooling Tower replacement with a Chiller and Free Cooler at two sites (removing the risk of legionella and costs associated with water treatment and cleaning twice a year)
- Relocating from internal location to external location 2 off 125kW chillers with the addition of 1 off 213kW i-Chiller and a Free Cooler (reducing power costs from £70k down to £44k – saving £26k per annum)
Once the project proposal was approved, the units and materials were delivered to sites, ready for the install and commissioning. Our full turnkey projects are fully managed on-site by our nationwide Contracts teams to ensure the projects run smoothly.
All equipment is backed-up by a planned preventative maintenance programme to keep the equipment as efficient as the day it was installed. Risk to production downtime is therefore minimised and production quality remains high – creating further energy and material savings.
The Result
The cooling system now runs at a lower ambient temperature thanks to citing units externally to the manufacturing operation. The customer now complies with industry best practice and will benefit from the investment by saving £120,000 per annum from reduced energy and water costs which translates to 26,000 tonnes of water – helping to boost their green credentials and strengthening their position in the marketplace.
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Free cooling chiller hire
Improve energy efficiency and lower your carbon footprint with our free cooling hire units. These free coolers can be used as a cooling solution in their own right or to provide free cooling for a significant proportion of the year when used in conjunction with a chiller. Our new range is available with multiple fixed fan speeds, inverter speed control and EC fans for varying noise applications as well as on low energy systems. The units control panels are designed to offer ease of use with a ‘plug and play’ solution and 4G connectivity.
Free cooling chillers
Free Cooling allows businesses to recover up to 80% of their process cooling energy costs by utilising lower ambient temperatures to cool their process application and reducing the need to power the chiller. Available as independent units or integrated with your process chiller, free coolers can be retrofitted into your existing process or installed as part of a turnkey solution. Working with businesses in the manufacturing and facilities management industries, we have lowered their energy costs and reduced their environmental impact through free cooling systems. Given the intrinsically process-heavy nature of the UK’s industrial manufacturing, process cooling is one of the biggest costs incurred. For many industrial end-users, process cooling is achieved solely via an air or water-cooled chiller or cooling tower. However, all industrial applications with a water leaving temperature of 10°C or more – regardless of sector – can start to be cooled via the external ambient air temperature, rather than by electro-mechanical refrigeration, thanks to a process known as free cooling. <strong>Up to 80% energy savings</strong> One of the stand-out benefits of a free cooling system is the sheer amount of energy – and therefore utility bills – it can save. While free cooling can bring about a reduction in energy consumption for any process cooling application with a water leaving temperature of 10°C or more, it should be attractive to larger manufacturers, such as those working in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors. Further costs can be saved due to the reduced load on the chiller – particularly the compressors and fans – as they are not worked as hard, or at all in some cases. As such, maintenance costs can be lower over the lifetime of the system. From a health and safety point of view, unlike cooling towers, free cooling systems pose no risk of legionella and therefore do not require additional water treatment costs beyond the norm to mitigate the risk of an outbreak.