2011 RAC Cooling Industry Awards reward retailers that use R744

Over 600 refrigeration and air conditioning professionals gathered at the RAC Cooling Industry Awards in London to celebrate the best projects and products in the HVAC&R sector. 

 

According to Andrew Gaved, Editor of RAC, this year’s Awards are a “fantastic snapshot of an industry taking its environmental responsibilities seriously and exercising its collective imagination to reduce energy and carbon”.

 

 

The Sainsbury’s supermarket in Crayford, Kent, introduced a number of groundbreaking technologies as part of a major refurbishment programme leading to a total store energy consumption reduction of at least 30%. Installed innovations include a closed loop borehole system integrated with CO₂ refrigeration and an intelligent energy management system.

 

The ‘geo exchange’ system uses boreholes drilled to depths of around 200m that provide cooling for the store CO₂ refrigeration systems, whilst waste heat is captured for space heating and domestic hot water. Companies involved in the project include Geoscart^TM, SCM Frigo and SWEP.

 

The supermarket’s “world-first” closed loop ground-hole boring system was also “Highly Commended” in the Refrigeration Innovation of the Year and Retail Project of the Year categories.

 

 

The top accolade for Retail Project of the Year for carbon reduction and heat recovery advances went to Marks & Spencer for its Eccleshall Road Simply Food store in Sheffield that uses natural refrigerants in both fridges and air conditioning. Designed by Oaksmere Refrigeration, the system uses hydrocarbon R290 propane as the primary refrigerant, and pumped volatile CO₂ as the distributed fluid. The Eccleshall Road store was built using sustainable materials and features, such as reclaimed bricks and FSC certified timber. Harvested rainwater is used for the toilets, whilst heating comes from the waste heat expelled by the fridges. Electric car charging points have also been added to the car park.

 

Marks & Spencer now has 28 stores using CO₂ refrigeration, having committed to using CO₂ systems in all new store refrigeration installations from 2010. As a result of measures including the introduction of CO₂ systems, M&S’s emissions from refrigeration and air conditioning gases in 2010/11 were 103,000 tCO₂e, down by 20% against 129,000 tCO₂e in 2006/07.

 

 

Danish manufacturer Grundfos, which also makes CO₂ refrigerant circulation pumps, won the Refrigeration Product of the Year category for its Refrigerant Circulation Pumps. The company manufactures circulator pumps for both heating and air conditioning. It’s compact CO₂ pump is optimised for both industrial and commercial applications, and has only one central seal between the pump sleeve and the motor housing making it ideal for high-pressure systems.

 

Danfoss, another leading Danish company, took top prize for Training Initiative of the Year.