Peter Powell

Supermarket owners want refrigeration systems that are energy efficient to hold down costs and pro-environmental to portray political correctness. But, for engineers, contractors, and technicians, that approach may not be that easy when opening a new store or retrofitting an existing location.

No sector of refrigeration has been more cutting edge than the supermarket sector. At the most recent Food Marketing Institute Energy & Store Development Conference, papers and presentations focused on these trends. Nearly all trends were actually being used in some supermarkets today.

Now that we are in a new year of greatly reduced supplies of new and imported HCFC-22, it is important to note that there is no ban on the use of R-22. You can use R-22 for as long as supplies last and you have well running R-22 equipment to service.

Ongoing training, a variety of incentives, and extraordinary incentives are all tools that help build a successful contracting business. And, employees attest, Miller’s guidance, leadership, and craftsmanship help make Snyder Air Conditioning one of America’s Best Contractors to Work For.

Papers and presentations showcased at the most recent Food Marketing Institute Energy & Store Development Conference demonstrated the sector’s move away from high-global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants and toward more efficient equipment.

As 2015 begins, the end of new and imported HCFCs is in sight and phasedown and limits on certain HFCs seem more and more likely. So to continue to meet refrigeration needs, f-gas proponents turn to low global warming potential (GWP) HFCs and HFOs, while advocates of natural refrigerants continue to build their case.

Efforts by European and United Kingdom manufacturers of refrigeration equipment using low-global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants to get their products into the North America market have marked another milestone. Star Refrigeration Group of the United Kingdom has launched a U.S. subsidiary.

This past year I was working on a story in which I asked contractors to comment on trends in refrigerants. I was doing so because so much of my writing in 2014 related to new directions for such gases. I start 2015 with the same theme: Continue to work with familiar refrigerants, but be prepared to shift to newer kids on the block.

The time has come to move on. So, after 29 ½ years at BNP Media and exactly 30 years in the HVACR industry, I will be retiring as of Feb. 15, 2015.

The supermarket refrigeration sector is sensing the demise of high-GWP HFCs for use in HVAC systems, including some of the most commonly used refrigerants, R-404A and -507. Even if the line between high- and low-GWP HFCs has yet to be drawn, the industry is considering low-GWP options more frequently.