Cold Stores

Should water tanks be a compulsory feature at all cold stores and warehouses? – Lutz Refrigeration responds

Rain water storage systems to supply evaporative cooling towers here in South Africa We are proud to say that Lutz Refrigeration in collaboration with Barpro will be pioneering the use of rain water harvesting to supply the fridge plant at Southern Cold Storage’s new freezer rental storage facilities in Germiston Johannesburg. The multiplex system will be cooling the 20 000m³ freezer room down to -25°C.  Opting for evaporative cooling with Freon is very much against the grain, but by doing this we managed to keep the capital costs in a standard Freon league while competing neck and neck with Ammonia plants on energy efficiency. Initially we will be installing 20m³ of water storage facilities which will offer two days of standby water capacity and will require a 20mm rainfall to be topped up.  Judging from historical rain falls and a bit of field testing we will probably increase that to around 40m³ once the system is up and running. The freezer store rooms are scheduled for commissioning during November this year, we will follow up with photos and feedback once the system is up and running. For more information contact Kevin Walter by email: kevinw@lutzrefrigeration.co.za

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Should water tanks be a compulsory feature at all cold stores and warehouses?

At 54% the Western Cape dam levels are way down on last year. If it doesn’t improve soon there will be problems next summer. Water shortages are something that the Australian cold storage guys have experienced. Their big cold stores all have water tanks, I have seen them at both Oxford and Montague, where they find it profitable to use rain water (suitably treated) in the condensers. One of the tanks pictured below is for the sprinklers and they are not allowed to use this water for anything else, but the others catch rain water off the roof. As far as we know there are no cold stores in SA that do the same thing. With the low rainfalls we are surprised that this has not become a mandatory requirement. If there are any cold stores catching rain water we would be very interested to get more information. Please contact James Cunningham on email james@barpro.co.za  

Should water tanks be a compulsory feature at all cold stores and warehouses? Read More »