BALTIMORE, Md. - The Danfoss Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Division seems rather proud of its new commercial refrigeration laboratory, located in its North American headquarters here in Baltimore. The state-of-the-art facility was designed to test and monitor light commercial refrigeration equipment including vending machines, ice machines, glass door merchandisers, and under-cabinet refrigerators.

According to the company, life-cycle testing is performed on refrigeration equipment at various ambient conditions.

"By monitoring and recording system pressures, temperature, compressor voltages, and power consumption, Danfoss experts perform efficiency testing in varying environments. In the testing environment, superheat, subcooling, system run times, and other various system conditions are measured that will affect the performance."

The test chamber environment can be controlled for dry-bulb (40 degrees to 120 degrees F) and wet-bulb (40 degrees to 115 degrees) temperatures. Many different climates can be produced and imitated in the chamber, the company said.

Heating and humidification equipment to create the lab's environment includes two 3,000-watt electric heater strips and a steam generator. The cooling and dehumidification system features a glycol recirculating system, which includes a cooling coil and a dehumidifying coil.

Publication date: 06/07/2004