A new guide from ASHRAE shows commercial facility owners and managers how to reduce the energy costs of running refrigeration systems.

Refrigeration Commissioning Guide for Commercial and Industrial Systems is a how-to on commissioning custom-engineered refrigeration systems in commercial and industrial facilities.

A 2007 report from the United States Environmental Protection Agency estimated that supermarkets use approximately three million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. Refrigeration systems account for about 60 per cent of that energy consumption. The Portland Conservation reported that commissioning existing grocery stores could reduce energy costs by seven to 25 per cent per year.

“Properly commissioned systems reduce energy costs, are easier to maintain, help minimize liabilities from refrigeration leaks and reduce loss of product to system failures or unreliable performance,” says Richard Royal, chair of the committee that authored the guide.

As these custom systems are complex, and are individually designed for a facility, it is difficult to resolve deficiencies in the system at the start-up. This leads to shortcoming and expensive maintenance over the facility’s lifespan.

“The value of commissioning is to establish a consistent step-wise process that helps ‘get it right the first time,’ resulting in refrigeration systems that ‘work right’ and minimize maintenance and energy costs,” Royal says.

The guide discusses how to create cost-effective and cost-efficient refrigeration systems for new projects, expansions, remodels and existing systems that simply need a tune-up. By following the guide, commercial facility owners and managers could lower operating and service costs, as well as product loss, and ultimately improve a facility’s profitability.