Aircon Group have worked with Harrogate Army Foundation College for several years. The college is the only Junior Entry Phase 1 training establishment in the British Army and offers a range of military training, personal development, and education for under 19s providing them with the skills needed to be successful in the armed forces, and their lives after the army.
Our latest project with the college was a refrigeration installation in the Officer’s Mess kitchen facilities. This installation involved the full replacement of the current installation owing to planned end of life cycle, this consisted of a dual-compartment chiller and freezer walk in cold store and then a separate independent chiller cold store.
We completely removed the existing installation and the R404a refrigerant which has been sent back to A-Gas where they will purify it and re-sell it as ‘reclaimed R404a’ specifically. The panelling was all disposed of per regulations and the copper has been recycled.
We conducted new heat load calculations, which then balanced the new systems to optimise product quality by specifically targeting an evaporating to room temperature TD which will not dehydrate fresh fruit and veg, or any prepared food being kept chilled.
The new installation was completed with refrigerant R448a, which is the lowest global warming potential (GWP) A1 refrigerant suitable for use in this application across all three rooms, its GWP figure is 65% of R404a, which over the three rooms would save the equivalent of 31.18 tonnes of carbon dioxide if released to atmosphere.
Balancing this specification of the older equipment, we were able to provide electrical energy savings which the newer plant naturally brought. Also, as we are able to operate the newer systems at lower running head pressures, this allowed us to save a bit more. Combined with the better insulating properties of the cold rooms, which will mean shortened running hours required of the plant, there has been a sizeable electrical saving presented within this installation.
A challenging aspect the installation team faced during this project was that the first week was completed whilst the kitchen was still operational, they met with all key stakeholders before the project to plan out how this would be achieved, and through careful planning of the order of the installation, we were able to keep the kitchen running and achieve the handover date set out in the programme.
For more information on our refrigeration services, give us a call on 01642 249026 (North East office) or 01709 367001 (Yorkshire office).
