Go Big or Go Home! It’s a common misconception in the energy management industry that to see any noticeable change in energy consumption, you need to implement massive, sweeping changes to your current operations. While this may sometimes be the case, it’s not always necessary. For example, walk-in coolers and freezers can be challenging to optimize due to strict temperature regulations for food safety. Ensuring your equipment runs efficiently is a vital step in maintaining compliance and reducing energy use without making drastic alterations.
We were approached by a franchisee looking to reduce overall energy consumption at two of their locations. After installing eViewIoT, we gained valuable insights into the energy usage at both sites, allowing us to develop a tailored strategy that aligned with their business needs while simultaneously saving money. By closely monitoring their coolers and making a minor adjustment—a two-degree temperature increase—one location achieved a 24% reduction in energy consumption, while the other saw a 19% reduction.
Below you can see the graphs of the before and after of each location. The three different colored lines and blue boxes just below the lines. The blue boxes represent when the compressor in a walk-in unit turns on, the green and purple line represent the two different coil temperatures and the grey line represents the unit target temperature. You can see the temperature of the coils, which represent the temperature inside the unit, aren’t very consistent when the unit goes into a defrost. The temperatures go up which can affect the quality of the food, and if they go up high enough, they could end up being a health code violation.
Before Adjustment
After Adjustment
Before Adjustment
After Adjustment
The client success team made a small adjustment, raising the temperature of the units at both locations by just 2 degrees, with the goal of observing changes in compressor performance and stabilizing temperature fluctuations. This slight increase meant the units no longer had to work as hard during defrost cycles to maintain consistent temperatures. As a result, the coolers now maintain more stable temperatures without creeping into the danger zone, thanks to the frequent defrost cycles.
This small change did more than keep foods out of the danger zone. The quality of the food was increased because it wasn’t being subjected to multiple thaws and freezing again. The equipment life was elongated because the compressor didn’t have to work as hard to try to maintain a temperature it wasn’t reaching. Ultimately, energy consumption was lowered by decreasing the number of defrosts the unit went through daily.