New Zealand Contractor Fonko Monitors Country’s First Epta FTE Transcritical System

Fonko, a contractor based in Auckland, New Zealand, has installed the country’s first Full Transcritical System (FTE) from Italian OEM Epta, and is monitoring the store to compare the system’s performance with that of a standard transcritical system.

Vince Audino, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Fonko, announced this development in his contractor’s insights presentation during ATMOsphere Australia, an online event hosted by shecco (publisher of this website), on July 28.

Epta’s FTE system uses a liquid receiver to improve the efficiency of a Transcritical CO₂ booster system. It was introduced in 2017, and has increasingly been adopted in hot climates.

The New Zealand installation was commissioned in November 2019 for Auckland-based food retailer, Pak’n Save Botany, and was finished in March, according to Audino.

“This was a retrofit, 265kW (75.4TR) medium-temperature and 40kW (11.4TR) low-temperature system.” The system was designed to operate in either standard transcritical mode, or in transcritical FTE mode. This allows for a comparison of their respective performance on the same system, said Audino.

Monitoring is ongoing and results are expected in October,said Audino. “We’re expecting to see a 7-10% energy saving with the FTE activated vs. standard transcritical mode.”

It is usually difficult to compare the efficiencies of different technologies, “because no two stores are the same,” said Audino, noting differences in rack size, installation age and local climate.