Star Refrigeration raises awareness at Roadshow
Star Refrigeration raises awareness of Carbon Reduction Commitment and F-Gas phase out in roadshow success.
Star Refrigeration have recently carried out a series of half-day formative events in Glasgow, Reading and Leeds that were attended by end-users, consultants and facilities management from various business sectors, who were interested in finding out more about the current challenges and developments in cooling and heating technology.
The Star Refrigeration Roadshow 2013 got underway in Glasgow on Tuesday 24th September, before going on to Leeds and finishing in Reading on Thursday 26th September.
Its theme was “The Future of Industrial Cooling & Heating: Reap The Benefits” and included CPD accredited presentations covering regulation, legislation, energy efficiency, proactive aftercare and heat recovery.
Rigorous planning and preparation was necessary when planning the event which used social media tools such as Twitter to market to the target audience. Each event was packed with vital information for operators of cooling and heating systems and Star received positive feedback from attendees.
Presentations were given by four members of Star’s senior management team, sharing knowledge on their areas of expertise and giving advice on any issues arising within the industry. These included the upcoming phase out of R22, updates to the F-Gas regulations, ideas for improving energy efficiency, the benefits of plant monitoring and off-site performance monitoring and combining cooling and heating to reduce carbon emissions and energy bills. Each expert took part in a Q&A session towards the end of the event, answering questions from members of the audience.
The presentations were as follows – David Blackhurst, MD Star Technical Solutions discussed the key environmental issues affecting the ongoing changes to industry legislation, including ozone depletion partially caused by toxic refrigerants, to prepare businesses for the proposed future phase out of F-Gases (HFCs).
Group Sales & Marketing Director Dr. Rob Lamb gave an insight into energy saving technology and design to help businesses reduce energy costs and improve performance of new and existing cooling systems.
Andy Smith, the Branch Manager of Star Manchester, talked about the importance of proactive refrigeration plant maintenance and how modern methods of monitoring and off site plant analysis can reduce customer operating costs. Examples included the benefits of oil analysis and moisture content in ammonia systems, and results were presented of work carried out by Star on 9 industrial refrigeration systems where this analysis was done and the subsequent end user benefits in terms of plant efficiency and reliability.
Finally, Director of Innovation and waste heat specialist David Pearson’s presentation aimed to create an understanding of the Carbon Reduction Commitment and how combined cooling and heating systems can reduce carbon emissions as well as the energy bill. David presented facts and figures to raise awareness of exactly how pressing the issue is to businesses: “Carbon Reduction Commitment is mandatory for certain businesses. It’s entirely derived about energy efficiency and it’s basically large businesses in the UK that have a 6000 megawatt hours per year energy consumption. If you run your plant for 4000 hours a year, it roughly equates to about 1500 kilowatts of electricity. So if your energy bill is more than 5000 kilowatts, your company is probably in this. It started off on a tapered basis and is probably only £50,000 a year for fairly large businesses, but that will rise.”
Star is carrying out a limited number of business to business Mini Roadshows for interested parties who were not able to attend the event. If interested, please send a request to mini-roadshow@star-ref.co.uk.