PERFORMANCE COMPARISON BETWEEN SHORTER AND CONVENTIONAL AIR CURTAINS IN RETAIL DISPLAY REFRIGERATORS

摘要

Refrigerated Display Cabinets constitute a large portion of the energy consumption of retail stores. Theyhave been thoroughly investigated over recent years, in an attempt to reduce their energy consumption andimprove temperature performance. Despite these investigations, open cabinets still exhibit poor performanceand consume more energy than door cabinets. However, retailers are reluctant to use doors as theydramatically reduce sales.This paper investigates the use of AirCell, an airflow technology that divides the retail space intoindividually refrigerated cells. Each cell uses its own short air-curtain and eliminates the need for pack panelflow - enhancing temperature and energy performance.An AirCell cabinet has been compared to two conventional cabinets by testing the cabinets to the ECA ISO23953:2015 standard. The findings reveal that the AirCell technology is able to reduce the producttemperature band by 4.8°C and the energy consumption by 24.5%.