Businesses could cut 20% off fridge energy bills, advises Carbon Trust

Refrigeration can consume significant amounts of energy - typically accounting for up to 50% of energy costs for businesses. Therefore the Carbon Trust is calling on businesses to cut their energy bills by checking their refrigeration systems and is running a free webinar to help tomorrow (20 July). To take part and to view the guide, go to: www.carbontrust.co.uk/expertinenergy. Here are some of the tips and advice included in the guide: Refrigerated display cabinets: Buy high-efficiency cabinets which are listed under the Enhanced Capital Allowance (ECA) scheme - these can use 30% less energy than a non-listed cabinet. Cold rooms: Open doors can cost you £6 per hour for freezers - use an air-tight store with good door management, lighting and defrost control. Heat recovery: Recovering the heat emitted by refrigeration equipment can help to reduce boiler energy consumption by up to 30% - fit your new refrigeration system with an energy saving 'desuperheater'. Chillers: Use a chiller engineered for UK temperatures, with good part-load capacity and efficiency and you could save as much as £25,000 a year for a typical 800kW process chiller. Richard Rugg, director of Delivery Services at the Carbon Trust, said: "Any business seeking to cut its costs should be looking at its energy bills and for many companies refrigeration accounts for a large part of those energy costs. Savings of up to 20% are possible with simple no and low cost steps. If your business uses refrigeration, it's an opportunity that's too good to miss."