Star Technical Solutions consultant to present paper for the Institute of Refrigeration

Refrigeration consultant presented with the Institute of Refrigeration’s Kenneth Lightfoot Medal will reveal the multiple uses and benefits that specialist refrigeration remote monitoring systems can offer to businesses by achieving energy savings, assessing long term investment opportunities, improving purchase decision making and validating the performance of maintenance activities.

John Clark, one of Star’s expert technical refrigeration consultants, has been invited to share his knowledge at an IOR presentation on 5th April. The free event takes place at the Arden Hotel in Birmingham at 3.30pm, and will also be live streamed as a webinar for those who cannot attend in person.

The industry paper focuses on the benefits and challenges faced by the remote monitoring of refrigeration systems and expounds a number of case studies where 10% savings were achieved on energy consumption simply by addressing common maintenance activities as well as further 10% to 20% savings attained from investment committed to improving the control strategy and replacement of inefficient equipment.

As an experienced energy consultant, Clark has been involved in the design and implementation of Star Technical Solution’s award-winning Ethos system, which is now used across the nation in a variety of industrial refrigeration plants. The aim of the presentation is to raise awareness of how to optimise energy efficiency and analyse return on investmentthrough remote monitoring solutions.

Mr Clark said, “Having worked on the development of the Ethos system I have first-hand experience in remote monitoring and analysis, and how it can impact on saving energy and plant running costs. It’s a privilege to be delivering a presentation on behalf of the Institute of Refrigeration, and I look forward to sharing Star’s expertise with owners and operators of industrial cooling equipment as well as fellow engineers, to pave the way for a more efficient and more cost effective future.”

Focusing on the three main challenges businesses using refrigeration equipment face, John will uncover the different uses and benefits specialist remote monitoring systems can offer in solving immediate, medium and long term challenges. “First and foremost is the immediate challenge of ensuring that operations continue unhindered, for example  a warehouse is maintained at the correct temperature and  production lines are running to desired capacity. Then, with the pressure of high energy prices, there is the on-going pursuit of reducing energy spend and carbon dioxide emissions. Finally, the business must secure its future by prudently managing its assets through maintenance, replacement and expansion”, added Mr Clark.

The paper explains some of the main challenges which arise from monitoring and analysis, including data collection and data management. End users need access to high quality, reliable data which can be formatted in a clear way to influence decision making.  Correct implementation of a remote monitoring system provides monitoring and analysis, alerts on equipment that needs immediate attention, enables informed decisions on capital spend such as payback period, ensures appropriate specification of equipment and identifies inefficiencies and optimisations.  However in developing such a system there is investment required to meet the challenges of data storage, security and management of the large volumes of data.

During the presentation, attendees will discover the challenges facing end users in terms of remote monitoring and will learn how these can be overcome to enable maximum optimisation of the refrigeration system. Software such as Ethos can be significant in preventing technical failures, optimising efficiency and making long term savings.

Malcolm Dufton, Property and Energy Manager at The Ice Co & Logistics who uses refrigeration performance optimisation and energy management system, Ethos said, “Energy consumption is a large operating expense for us. Add on charges increasingly diminish the control we have on our electricity costs. Therefore we focus on reducing energy usage and already the improvements identified on one system will reduce its energy cost by 10%, encouraging us to roll out the service to our other systems and sites.”

“A key feature for us is the online monitoring dashboard, it gives our managers and engineers clear real-time visibility of all our connected systems  health and performance and allows them to drive energy savings and preventative maintenance.”

Join John Clark and the IOR at this anticipated event by registering on Eventbrite:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/challenges-learning-from-the-remote-monitoring-analysis-of-refrigeration-systems-tickets-36891013013

Star Technical Solutions consultant to present paper for the Institute of Refrigeration