Fresh on the heels of the announcement of an almost 50 percent reduction in supplies of virgin HCFC-22, the supermarket industry is reacting. What are they focusing on now?
It is great to enter the industry as a refrigeration service technician (or any HVACR tech for that matter) with a good amount of education attained through high school, community college, vocational school, or even a four-year program. But is that enough?
There are many reasons for wanting to stop refrigerant leaks in HVAC mechanical equipment. Some of the most obvious are partial or total loss of cooling capacity, decrease in efficiency, system damage, costly repairs and cleanup, etc. The list goes on and on.
Apache Junction, Ariz., is one of the harshest and hottest climates in the United States. Last winter Burke Alford, maintenance manager for the Safeway supermarkets, was faced with the dilemma of replacing another evaporative condenser. The company decided to consider a new hybrid condenser technology.
The Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Technology Institute (AHRTI) has completed a research project on performance standards for walk-in refrigerator and freezer systems.
My Point of View in the April FROSTlines was about a movie called “Inuk” that was shown at the Beloit International Film Festival. Now, I suppose I should mention another movie (one of four we saw at that same festival) — one completely different from “Inuk” but one that had a refrigeration aspect.
Highly-efficient AK/AJ condensing units have been added to the Celseon® line of products. Each unit has an ultra-reliable, single-phase, PSC (permanent split-capacitor) motor, which does not require a starter (115V 60Hz and 208-230V 60Hz are available).
From a global perspective, there is a lot of interest in the wider use of R-744 (CO2), especially in supermarket refrigeration. Recently, a number of international studies and seminars have reported some of the latest developments regarding R-744.
One of the basic components selected when installing a walk-in cooler/freezer or any field-assembled refrigeration system is the metering device, typically the thermostatic expansion valve (TXV). The TXV needs to be selected to match the Btu capacity of the system’s evaporator and compressor.