Cobrey Farms is a family-run business specialising in the farming of potatoes, asparagus, green beans, blueberries, and rhubarb, and Cooling FX have been looking after its refrigeration systems for many years.
As a result of increasing refrigerant costs the customer decided to commission a new system and specified a future-proof solution that would be sustainable, efficient and cost-effective, thus protecting the investment. The system also needed built-in redundancy in each room in case of breakdown.
Cobrey Farms is a family-run business specialising in the farming of potatoes, asparagus, green beans, blueberries, and rhubarb, and Cooling FX have been looking after its refrigeration systems for many years.
As a result of increasing refrigerant costs the customer decided to commission a new system and specified a future-proof solution that would be sustainable, efficient and cost-effective, thus protecting the investment. The system also needed built-in redundancy in each room in case of breakdown.
The project involved replacing an existing refrigeration system linked to a single multi-compressor pack holding around 650kg of R404A refrigerant. This system had provided over 20 years of reliable service and the farmer wanted to protect the rooms ability to operate while the new equipment proved its reliability. Cooling FX integrated the latest design into the cold rooms whilst the existing system operated, providing a back up while the CO2 system was commissioned.
Cooling FX installed two arctic circle pack systems and the evaporators. GB Controls designed and built the control panels, Coolers & Condensers in Fareham manufactured the evaporators and condensers and ADA (Gloucester) provided the design brief.
Two containerised packs are cross-linked to the evaporators in each room, i.e. in three of the rooms there are two new evaporators (around 100kW per room), one linked to pack A the other to pack B. The fourth room saw two new evaporators added alongside four existing evaporators, in order to increase cooling capacity. In the event that one system has an operational issue, the other system is designed to hold the temperature on its own across all four rooms until the issue
is resolved.
Each evaporator is fitted with highly efficient EC fans that can be speed controlled. Cooling FX has taken the advantages offered by these EC fans a step further by designing a control logic to match the needs of each crop. For example, when potatoes are stored once room temperature is satisfied, instead of switching the fans off, they are set to run at 20% capacity to keep the air in circulation over the crops. The control system senses a real room temperature which improves control and product quality. Once the system detects the temperature increasing, normal operation resumes.
Danfoss CCMT electronic expansion valves were installed to provide each room with programmable temperature control automatically set by the control system according to the product being stored.
The location of the evaporators had to be such that the storage height was not compromised. The drain pans are configured to allow water to drain out of the side of the pan, rather than out of the base, so water can flow out of the room without dropping below the depth of the evaporators.
The control panels feature RDM’s latest PLC programmable controllers using their Touch Central Control Manager. This provides the farmer and installer remote access to a range of data and allows remote engineering access.
Eight Coolers & Condensers CF range ceiling-mounted evaporators were selected, finished with white casework and stainless-steel drain pans, hinged fan plates for ease of cleaning, lift-off end covers and fan isolators. The use of EC fans allowed Cooling FX to enhance their defrost logic even further with reduced fan speeds (as low as 20%) under certain conditions.
“Lasting Impressions Food Company based at London Heathrow have acquired the services of Cooling FX Ltd as their chosen refrigeration and air conditioning contractor for the past 8 years, supplying an excellent service in the installation of our existing unit as well as supplying LI with a maintenance service on all our refrigeration units. During the years of using Cooling FX we have found them to be very proactive as well as having the ability to find solutions to the most complex situations without any fuss and with the minimum of disruption to our business. I would have no hesitation in recommending Cooling FX to anyone seeking a solution to their refrigeration and air conditioning requirements.”
“We opened our site 10 years ago in Bristol and Cooling FX installed a large freezer for us and we have been using them ever since for service and maintenance. They also service and maintain our chillers and air conditioning units. I have always found them extremely friendly, flexible and very reliable which is critical for our business. It gives us great peace of mind to know we have a top level of service and cover there as back up when things go wrong. I would fully recommend any company to use Cooling FX……you won’t be disappointed !”
“Andrews Estate Agents have used the services of Cooling FX Ltd for the past 8 years for the servicing, maintenance and installation of our air conditioning systems for our branches throughout the South West. We have an excellent working relationship with all staff and Cooling FX have never failed to give us a first class service.”
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