Commercial refrigerators are absolutely critical pieces of equipment for businesses like restaurants, grocery stores, cafeterias and anywhere else that serves or stores food. As anyone who runs one of these businesses can tell you, these appliances require a lot of energy to stay in operation, as they work around the clock and cool a whole lot of volume. This means you are in for large energy bills on a monthly basis.

However, there are some strategies you can take to cut down the amount of energy you are expending through commercial refrigeration in Florida. The Energy Department announced a while back that it would be enforcing new standards on new pieces of equipment to make refrigerators and freezers more efficient moving forward.

Short of purchasing new, more efficient equipment, here are some other strategies you can take to improve the efficiency of your large refrigerators:

• Be discriminating with your anti-sweat heater use: You should only turn on anti-sweat heaters if there are conditions in the room that you know are going to cause the display windows or doors to form condensation. There are tools you can use to create adaptive controls for these devices, allowing them to alternate between on and off to save energy.
• Make sure doors are in good condition: Check all the gaskets, auto closers and seals to make sure they are operating as they are supposed to. When these door components begin to fail and degrade, they allow warm and humid air to get into refrigeration units. This means the unit has to force itself to work harder. If too much warm air gets in, you’ll have to deal with spoiled food.
• Put night curtains in place: Having these curtains over open cases helps to keep the refrigerated air from escaping the area after you’ve closed up for the night.
• Make sure you have proper air flow: The refrigeration system should always have plenty of space in its immediate surrounding area to ensure a proper level of air flow over the heat exchange cells at all times. This will drastically cut down on the amount of energy you are wasting.
• Keep the system clean: When dust and grime collects on the coils, this can impact the heat transfer within the system and force it to work harder. By engaging in regular cleaning of the entire system, you are helping yourself save money on your energy bills.
• Use motion sensors for lighting: Rather than installing lights that remain on at all times, install motion sensor lights inside your refrigeration units instead. This means the lights will only be on when they are actually needed to see what’s inside, even during regular business hours.

Looking for more advice about how to save energy and money on your monthly utilities bills with your commercial refrigeration in Florida? Contact us today at 5 Star Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, Inc. and we will be happy to answer any questions you have about our products and services.