WASHINGTON —The GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership, run by the Environmental Protection Agency, is working on a "lifecycle cost analysis" of advanced refrigeration systems that will enable retailers to compare the overall cost of these systems to that of a conventional DX refrigeration system, said Keilly Witman, communication specialist for the EPA and manager of GreenChill.
EPA is "targeting this year" to complete the analysis, based so far on input from 10 stores, and report its findings to the industry, she said.
The analysis is intended to help retailers consider the cost of advanced equipment in broader terms that just the "up-front cost of the equipment," which tends to be greater than that of DX systems, she said.
"We are trying to overcome the remaining hurdles to buying advanced refrigeration technology," especially cost, she added.
Other factors that can mitigate the up-front cost include maintenance savings, lower piping costs and refrigerant reductions. Advanced refrigeration systems include secondary loop, cascade, distributed and compact chillers.
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