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Is Money Best Spent on Efficient Design or Maintenance?
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Is Money Best Spent on Efficient Design or Maintenance?
In 2010 approximately 6.3 billion tonnes of food were produced globally, it is estimated that 2.3 billion tonnes
of this require a refrigeration process of some sort. This has been increasing by approximately 10% year on year.
Refrigeration systems are responsible for consuming approximately 17% of all power generated globally.
Assuming an average coefficient of performance (COP) of 4, we as an Industry are using around 4,500 billion
kWh per annum and rejecting roughly 18,000 billion kWh of heat. Carbon emissions attributed to the operation
of refrigeration systems vary depending on the energy source the system operator chooses to employ. As a
sector, therefore, we are producing rather a lot of carbon, just in running our refrigeration systems. Arguably,
not all will be efficient and from experience, most are not. Any decrease in efficiency just means greater
amounts of cost, wear, and carbon emissions (ignoring altogether refrigerant type and leakages, which is a
whole other topic of discussion, although related).The following paper attempts to explain a little more as to why designing efficient refrigeration systems is
critical in solving many issues related to carbon, water, and energy reduction along with other additional costs
which impact service expenses.
