Use of FAFCO Ice banks in Air-Conditioning Application

The effizient and cost saving solution

Cooling requirements in buildings such as shopping malls, cinemas and theatres, office buildings together with some industrial processes can vary considerably over a 24 hour period and from season to season. Whilst little or no cooling may be required at night or in winter, substantial peaks of consumption will occur during the day in summer.

A conventional cooling installation must be sized to meet these peaks resulting in a chiller plant much too large for most other times. This leads to poor plant utilisation and a low overall operating efficiency resulting in high cooling production costs. In addition, higher capital investment may also be needed.

With the use of a FAFCO ice store significant operating and investment costs can be saved. Cold energy can be produced at night usually at a lower cost. During the daytime this energy can be redistributed to the cooling system as required. In periods of high demand direct cooling production peaks can be avoided and chiller capacity a can be reduced by 50% or more. In addition, the ice store only can be used during period of low demand avoiding operation of the chiller plant altogether! Plant utilisation is greatly improved and, with better control of cooling output, production costs can be lowered even further.