Energy Saving Intelligent Controls for Commerical/Industrial Refrigeration

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Energy Saving Intelligent Controls for Commercial/Industrial Refrigeration--ADA Technologies, Inc., 304 Inverness Way South, Suite 365, Englewood, CO 80112-5828;
(303) 792-5615
Mr. Patrick D. French, Principal Investigator
Dr. Daryl L. Roberts, Business Official
DOE Grant No. DE-FG03-97ER82309
Amount: $74,967

Approximately 4% of all the power generated in the US goes to refrigeration in large industrial and commercial applications. These refrigeration systems develop ice on the heat exchanger fins which reduces the system efficiency since significant power is used to defrost the heat exchangers. If a low cost smart defrost system is developed and installed on these systems, up to 15% of the total refrigeration power consumed could be saved. This project is to develop a low cost, rugged defrost system that could save enormous amounts of power in refrigeration without adding additional workload to the refrigeration system operators. The complete system consists of an innovative frost sensor module, a custom microcontroller and commerically available control relays for the refrigeration system. In Phase I, a novel and extremely rugged frost sensor module for use in demand defrost will be demonstrated. The innovative sensor module and the control algorithms will be tested in the laboratory on a commercial refrigeration system. Phase II, will include the development of a complete control system and a full-scale test.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The opportunity to significantly reduce energy consumption, and operating costs, for a wide range of commercial industries starting in 1999 could have wide economic benefit by the year 2002. Widespread use of this novel system would reduced overall power consumption in the U.S. and thereby save natural resources and decrease pollution.