Cold storage construction design and build services require expertise in the details of these highly specialized facilities. Refrigerated warehouses, frozen food distribution centers and grocery freezers are the highest energy consuming sector per cubic foot in the world. To help reduce energy consumption and improve facility efficiencies, cold storage facilities must be properly designed and built, and they must integrate the most energy-efficient systems available. Halfacre Construction’s SUCCESS approach gives our clients unique solutions that addresses their most demanding concerns which are temperature stability, energy costs, and maintenance.
SUCCESS
ISOLATE
We isolate passive building components. Thermal bridging has been defined as “the loss of building energy through thermal conductivity of elements that ‘bridge’ across the insulation of a wall or roof enclosure of a conditioned space when the outside temperature is warmer or colder than the interior space.” In other words, thermal bridging occurs when a more conductive (i.e. something with a poor insulating value) element creates an easy pathway for heat flow across a thermal barrier. The end results? Everyone’s worst nightmare: Heat loss and the potential for condensation.
REDUCE
For a typical cold storage facility, after wages, electricity is the second largest operation cost. We look at all active building components to reduce electrical consumption. We specify energy efficient LED lighting, variable frequency drives (VFDs) to screw compressors, freezer and condenser fans, oversize evaporative condensers, voltage optimization, and power factor correction. We use localize programmable logic controllers to continuously adjust individual components of the refrigeration system for maximum proficiency.
AUTOMATE
We install a centralize control system with remote monitoring capabilities to optimize energy efficiency in the entire system. An efficient automated storage and retrieval system will help companies cut expenses by minimizing the amount of unnecessary parts and products in storage and improving organization of the contents of a warehouse. Due to automated processes, it also allows for more storage space due to high-density storage and narrower aisles. Automation reduces labor costs while lowering workforce requirements and increasing safety.
RECOVER
Waste Energy Recovery (WER) describes any process in which energy that would typically be “thrown away” is captured and put to use. WER can be used to generate electricity or to produce thermal energy for processes within the cold storage operation. WER displaces the need for purchased fuels and electricity, thus resulting in fuel cost savings while providing industrial end-users with more control over their total energy use. Recovering heat from the condenser for use in a glycol slab-heating system or for the defrosting of evaporators in lieu of electrical resistance is examples of waster energy recovery used by Halfacre.