Permafrost Case Study
Air conditioning chillers are an essential part of a building's services. They can be responsible for 25% to 30% of a base building's total energy consumption and hence their efficient operation is of paramount importance. Typically in an air conditioning system, a mixture of oil and refrigerant is passed through coils which collects heat from the building, which, much like a radiator on a car, heat up. In the chillers, a cooler medium is passed across the coils so the mixture of oil and refrigerant is cooled down before being passed around the cycle to collect more heat and repeat the process. Over time, the oil mixture clings onto the surface of the coils steadily reducing their capacity to transfer heat.
In 2006, we trialled a product called Permafrost which loosens this built up oil and replaces it with a thermo-conductive molecular compound providing more efficient heat transfer, resulting in increased cooling capacity and a reduction in energy consumption. These trials both worked well and in early 2007, the product was rolled out en-masse to all chillers within the Investa portfolio. To date, two stages of post implementation monitoring have been conducted with results demonstrating an average efficiency improvement of 18.8%. As a result, our air conditioning systems are 'faster, lighter, and enduring' and therefore more sustainable.
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