Star Refrigeration launches an energy consumption benchmarking tool to highlight chilling energy costs.

Star Refrigeration calls on businesses to benchmark their energy consumption against industry standard at the Temperature Controlled Storage and Distribution Show which will take place on 25th and 26th June in Peterboroug.

In a bid to get cold storage businesses thinking about energy consumption and life cycle costs, Star Refrigeration has launched a benchmarking tool to assess how businesses’ electricity usage compares against similar sites across the UK and Europe. Industrial refrigeration systems use large amounts of energy and typically cost 7-10 times as much to run over their lifetime as they do to buy, according to the Food and Drink Industry Refrigeration Initiative report. Just in the Cold Storage sector, refrigeration is estimated to account for up to 90% of the energy costs.

With this in mind, Star’s new ‘Chilling energy costs’ tool is able to benchmark the performance of a refrigeration plant vs industry standard and UK best practice guidelines. This will arm end-users with practical knowledge, allowing them to compare electricity consumption and implement energy saving measures to reduce energy spend. In order to benchmark their energy consumption against competitors, businesses must ensure they have details of their refrigeration system’s energy consumption and site volume.

David Wallace, Director of Sales at Star Refrigeration said, “The cold storage energy consumption benchmarking tool is a quick and simple way to find out if you’re paying more than average on your annual energy bill. You will receive a detailed report demonstrating how your energy consumption compares with other users.

The energy consumption calculator analyses data to give a detailed insight into how energy efficient a refrigeration plant is. If a user discovers their equipment is consuming more energy than most plants, and higher than the industry standard, Star Refrigeration can signpost a number of services which aim to increase efficiency and reduce energy bills.

The free benchmarking service is part of a wider Star strategy to increase awareness of energy consumption within the cold storage industry, with the end goal of reducing carbon emissions and energy costs.

Mr Wallace added, “With energy consumption playing such a huge part in a business’ annual spend, it makes sense to ensure everything is done to make a plant as efficient as possible. Not all actions require huge investment, we have found with many customers that simply altering set temperatures or regular maintenance can have a significant impact. As a company we strive for sustainability and pride ourselves on suggesting sensible solutions which help users save money and the planet.

Now in its 5th year, the TCS&D Show is a two day long conference and exhibition at the East of England Arena. In addition to sponsoring World Refrigeration Day, Star will be exhibiting at stand B24 and speaking to delegates sharing industry knowledge with two presentations as part of the conference programme.