Guest bio
Peter Dee is Danfoss’ Sales & Services Director for Food Retail in North America. Dee has over 30 years of industry experience and has worked with companies such as Energy MCS Limited, Cool Control Ltd., Honeywell Elm, Trembath Refrigeration, and Westward Refrigeration. An alum of Global Education Group Florida where he got his Master’s degree in Business, Peter also holds Bachelor’s degrees from Cork Institute of Technology and University of Plymouth, in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and Electrical, Electronic and Communications Engineering Technology/Technician respectively.
Episode summary
Host John Sheff interviews, Peter Dee, Danfoss’ Sales & Services Director for Food Retail in North America, about refrigerant trends in food retail applications, such as using alternative refrigerants, particularly natural refrigerants like CO2. Further they detail on what new and existing technologies are available to support an efficient, cost-effective transition to natural refrigerants, and the impact of refrigerant regulations.
Main Points
- Europe has been using decentralized systems and electronic controls for longer, which made it easier to adapt to alternative refrigerants, such as CO2. In the US, there’s a greater learning curve.
- End users are demanding lowered operational costs through greater efficiency from their systems, which has made natural refrigerants more attractive.
- Cost savings has been one motivating factor, increasingly strict environmental regulations are another, especially in United States Climate Alliance member states.
- California has proposed to limit systems with a charge of 50 lbs. or more to a GWP of 150 by the year 2022.
- Unfortunately, the current proposal uses broad, confusing language, and many in the industry are left with questions.
- Because of these challenges, it’s important that manufacturers and end-users be involved in the conversation with lawmakers.
- While refrigerants like R-448A, R-449A are currently used and are great alternatives to more traditional refrigerants, such as R-404A, they will not be able to be used under California’s proposed limits. Therefore, natural refrigerants are the only viable, long-term solution.
- In Europe, natural refrigerants like CO2 and propane have been used for decades, so these refrigerants have a long history of success.
- While CO2 is a great choice for new systems, it can be particularly challenging for retrofitted systems. One solution can be to introduce more self-contained or partially self-contained systems, though that may increase maintenance costs and increase the time that older, high GWP refrigerants are used.
- The increased efficiency of alternative refrigerants make them very attractive, but there is often a high front end cost to retrofit existing systems.
- Some states, such as Delaware, store owners can have their retrofits subsidized.
- Contractors can prepare by getting training to use these new refrigerants and technologies.
- Contracting companies may want to consider hiring an expert to help train employees and customers.
- While efficiency is often the most talked about advantage offered by using case controllers and other electronic components, these technologies often make diagnostic work faster and easier, and can sometimes be done remotely.
- With increased connectivity comes an increased emphasis on cyber security. Fortunately, many manufacturers are including security measures in their electronic components.
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