Cooling costs cut by 67%

Investment in energy-efficient inverters and a free cooling system from IsoCool. is paying off fast for Fluorocarbon with cooling costs on track to reduce by 67%. The project, funded with a loan from the Carbon Trust and Siemens Financial Services under the Energy Efficiency Financing Scheme, has a payback schedule of less than two years.

Historically the process cooling system consisted of a single water chiller with a 120kW cooling capacity, and cost just over £20,000 a year to run. IsoCool retro-fitted a separate RFC air blast cooler to the chiller. This provides the cooling source during the times of the year when the ambient will allow partial and up to 100% direct air cooling, thus offloading the compressors and the inherent high operating costs.

IsoCool believed further energy savings could be achieved by installing inverters to the process pumps. These alter the speed of the pumps in direct response to demand.

They also limit peaks in electrical use, keeping energy consumption and operating costs to a minimum.

Shaun Grundon, health, safety and environmental officer, explains: "Our water chillers used to be on 24/7, 52 weeks of the year. Now thanks to the free cooler, the main chiller only comes on two to three months a year.

The energy savings are massive".

Grundon says results from the inverters are equally impressive.