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Dealing with the energy consumed by their commercial refrigeration systems was the first topic addressed at the third annual Refrigeration Roundtable, held Sept. 20-21 at the Schaumburg Convention Center, Schaumburg, Ill.
Hosted by SN and ContractingBusiness.com , a sister publications at Penton Media, the roundtable brought together refrigeration executives from food retailers and the contracting firms that install and service commercial refrigeration. The event was sponsored by Hill Phoenix, Danfoss and Emerson Climate Technologies.
Refrigeration Roundtable retailers, from left: Jon Scanlan, Hy-Vee; Paul Anderson, Target; Howard Hehrer, Meijer; Ted Alwine, Martin's Super Markets; Joe Gallego, BJ's Wholesale; Scott Martin, Hill Phoenix.
Refrigeration Roundtable contractors, from left: Mike Saunders, Emerson Climate Technologies; Bon Axelrod, Cooling Equipment Service; Steve Tibbets, T&O Refrigeration; Mike Martin, Carlson & Stewart; Brent Beishuizen, Zone Mechanical.
The transition from R-22 to alternative refrigerants - a tricky process for retailers -- was another topic covered at the roundtable. Other topics will be addressed in future editions of SN and on the SN website.
Participating in the roundtable from the supermarket industry were Jon Scanlan, director-refrigeration & energy management, Hy-Vee, West Des Moines, Iowa; Paul Anderson, group manager, refrigeration/engineering, Target, Minneapolis; Joe Gallego, manager of refrigeration & HVAC services, BJ's Wholesale Club, Westborough, Mass.; Howard Hehrer, senior engineer, Meijer, Grand Rapids, Mich.; and Ted Alwine, director, engineering, Martin's Super Markets, South Bend, Ind.
Read more: Refrigeration Roundtable: Energy Mavens
Representing the contracting industry were Mike Martin, president, Carlson & Stewart, Marshall, Minn.; Bob Axelrod, president, Cooling Equipment Service, Elk Grove Village, Ill.; Steve Tibbets, owner, T&O Refrigeration, Fayetteville, Ga.; Jai Hoover, vice president, Remco, Allentown, Pa.; and Ed Mattos, president, Remco. Also participating in the energy discussion was Scott Martin, director of sustainable technologies, Hill Phoenix, Conyers, Ga., and participating in the R-22 discussion was Kurt Knapke, director - compressor electronics at Emerson Climate Technologies, Sidney, Ohio.
A full transcript of the energy and R-22 discussion follows.
Energy-Saving Strategies
SN: What is your approach to saving energy in refrigeration systems?
SCANLAN: The efficiency piece is key, but I believe optimizing the system that you have in place is equally as important. Hy-Vee's refrigeration maintenance is very de-centralized. However, we do utilize utility benchmarking from a corporate standpoint. We identify outliers that use the...