Energy Management System for Cooling and Heating Equipment Shortlisted for Awards
Star Technical Solutions (STS), the consultancy arm of the Star Refrigeration group of companies, is celebrating being shortlisted for two awards at the National ACR & Heat Pump Awards 2018. The winners will be announced at The Titanic Hotel in Liverpool on January 18th 2018.
The consultancy’s plant optimisation and energy management system, Ethos, has been nominated for Refrigeration Product of the Year and ACR Product of the Year. Exclusive to STS, the game changing software remotely monitors refrigeration plants across the UK, analyses data and makes recommendations for improving efficiency and saving electricity. The system has already achieved significant energy savings for refrigeration end-users from a variety of industries including temperature controlled storage and distribution, food manufacture and brewing.
Anne Flanagan, Business Development Manager for Ethos said, “We are thrilled to be shortlisted for not one but two awards at next year’s National ACR & Heat Pump Awards. ”
“We identified a gap in the market for a specialist energy management and system performance optimisation solution for cooling and heating equipment. Using our expert knowledge of the refrigeration industry gained over nearly 50 years, we set out to address the often large potential for energy savings – for industrial sites energy consumed by the refrigeration plant can typically account for 60% – 90% of the business’ overall energy costs- and a consequent significant element of their carbon footprint.”
We look forward to attending the event in Liverpool, which encourages industry collaboration and celebrates the hard work and achievements of the heating and cooling sector.
Ethos represents a completely new way of looking at system performance and energy efficiency. It takes an in-depth look at the energy aspect of the plant rather than general values such as ambient temperatures and power usage. Most energy management systems used today employ basic statistical analysis to provide energy consumption figures without analysing the reasons behind poor performance or guidance on how to improve it.
Flanagan, says “The method behind the Ethos system is unique. It creates a model of the customer’s plant and compares this to the actual operating parameters to assess the inefficiencies and from this to provide insight into what exactly needs to be changed and how much money might be saved as a result.”
Ethos has achieved savings between 10% and 30% without any significant capital investment from customers.
Malcolm Dufton, Director of The Ice Co and one of the customers who engaged with STS to gain transparency on their energy usage, said “Energy consumption is a large part of our monthly operating expenses. STS improvements have already reduced our bill by 10% and once additional work is carried out we expect that to increase to 15%.”
STS’s consultants developed the software behind Ethos to perform complex calculations using the data measured from the system. The refrigeration experts then use the data analysis to deliver recommendations on maintenance, energy consumption reduction and future plan investment. Using simple language that anyone can understand, Ethos offers end-users with a profound insight of their plants performance and efficiency.
Darrin Leslie, Factory Manager of Campbell’s Prime Meat said, “In August 2016, we planned to expand our production facility. We were not sure whether our existing refrigeration plant had sufficient capacity to handle the additional cooling duty required. Rather than taking a risk or buying additional equipment that maybe wasn’t necessary we employed Star Technical Solutions (STS) to assess our site’s cooling demand over a 2 week period. The assessment revealed that our existing equipment could comfortably handle the new production load.”
“Star’s appraisal allowed us to capitalise on surplus capacity and avoid the unnecessary purchase of new equipment.”
To enable the service, STS install sensors and an Ethos panel to the cooling/heating system. This sends information via the built-in 4G mobile connection to a web portal. This information is displayed on a computer or mobile phone in the form of an online dashboard which gives details on plant performance and current operating conditions.
The prestigious event brings together around 300 professionals from the heat pump, air conditioning and refrigeration industry for an entertaining awards evening. This year the brand new venue is the stunning Titanic Hotel in Liverpool, which as a former warehouse has an impressive history.
Find out more about the NACRHP 2018 Awards Ceremony here: https://www.acrheatpumpawards.uk/
To find out more about Star Technical Solutions and why the company has been nominated, go to: https://www.star-ts.co.uk/services/ethos-homepage.aspx