Refrigeration that cools with less fuel

Salad days

 

Café Wayland’s Yard, with 200-cover branches in Birmingham and Worcester, serves locally sourced, diner-style breakfasts and brunches. Director Joe Phillips says: “Whatever we do, we try to do as well as possible. Of course, that applies to our food, but it’s also relevant to our equipment, a lot of which is refrigeration because everything we sell needs to be kept at the perfect temperature to maintain maximum freshness.”

 

Phillips was looking for eco-friendly appliances that were also sensibly priced, and decided on Aquilo Refrigeration from the team behind Pantheon Catering Equipment.

 

“Through a recommendation we found exactly what we needed at Aquilo,” he says. “We’ve got a few units now, including a refrigerated salad counter, and they’re all perfect. In fact, because we could justify the cost, we even use one just to ice glasses.”

 

Bigger hospitality groups are also always on the hunt for dependable refrigeration that can meet their needs while avoiding high utility expenses. Premier Inn owner Whitbread has found its energy costs have halved over the past few years thanks to Adande’s refrigerated drawers. At the Oxford branch of Beefeater in the Oxford Technology Park, the cookline is outfitted with units that can operate at both fridge and freezer temperatures, while appliances in the dessert section store ice-cream.

 

 

Whitbread’s kitchen platform manager Michael Jessop says: “Using Adande at various stations in the kitchen saves on average 46% of energy use. Quantify that into pounds and as you can imagine, the saving is huge. Not only that, but using less energy helps reduce our carbon footprint in line with our company goals.”

 

In such busy sites where staff need to access fridges some 2,000 times a day, the group found that it saved time moving from undercounter door cabinets to drawers: “We found we can save seven seconds using Adande drawers, per opening. That equates to four hours of saved time, more or less, per day, per kitchen. Again, multiply that across our estate and the impact is enormous,” he says.

 

Heaven sent

 

For Michelin-starred restaurant the Angel at Hetton in Skipton, North Yorkshire, increasing the sustainability of the venue is a key part of chef patron Michael Wignall’s vision. “We’re aiming to be as green as possible here,” he says. Wignall chose Williams refrigerated cabinets, counters, blast chillers and coldrooms, many of which were bespoke. The total electricity supply to Hetton village was only 120kW, while the kitchen’s originally estimated peak load would have been 290kW, so to solve this Wignall had a Sicotronic intelligent energy management system from Ki-Tech installed. The system scans the circuits and diverts power when and where it is needed. This, combined with the latest energy saving technology, allows the Angel to make significant reductions on its electricity consumption.

 

“Looking for ways to reduce energy usage ties into our aims of being environmentally friendly as well as helping to limit the effects of rising costs, so looking for the most energy efficient equipment just makes sense,” says Wignall. “What we have now is probably the most energy efficient kitchen in the UK.”

 

 

Tried and tested

 

It can be difficult for operators to determine which refrigeration brand is the most efficient and eco-friendly for a hospitality site, given the blizzard of claims and counterclaims out there, and the only surefire way of checking is through independent certification.

 

Over recent years the Ecodesign Directive and Energy Labelling Regulations, originally established by the EU and then readopted by the UK following Brexit as the GB energy labelling directive, have become the go-to standards. Commercial refrigerators’ energy class is rated on a scale from A+++ to G (where A+++ is the most efficient), and is based on the appliance’s minimum energy performance standards.

 

Liebherr is demonstrating its eco credentials with a Gold EcoVadis sustainability rating, gained last year for the second time, ranking the firm among the top 3% of all rated manufacturing companies worldwide. Its refrigeration technology includes a sensory system that enables its units to adapt their cooling performance, only using the entire power reserve when necessary. This can be seen in its new heavy-duty range, out this summer, such as the A-rated FRPSvg 6501 upright cabinet.

 

Meanwhile, renewable energy system supplier Viessmann subjected its coldrooms to independent analysis by certification organisation TÜV Süd. The testing demonstrated that Viessmann coldrooms outperformed the market average energy efficiency by 18%, and the least-efficient competitor models by 49%, due to its foam insulation which maintains performance over the long term. With the manufacturer noting that focusing on lifecycle costs can ultimately lead to higher energy savings, this is a good principle for hospitality equipment buyers to abide by – the old adage of ‘buy cheap buy twice’ will always be apposite.

 

Mastering temperature monitoring for all staff

 

Precise temperature monitoring can deliver huge efficiency benefits for hospitality sites, such as events caterer Grocers’ Hall in London.

 

Head chef Graham Pratt is responsible for delivering up to five courses for a maximum of 250 guests as well as catering for the Grocers’ Company’s 1,100 members, as well as feeding his team of 30 full-time staff – rising to 70 team members at busy events.

 

With a collection of fridges, freezers and blast chillers in the kitchens, Pratt wanted to ensure efficient operations, food safety and hassle-free reporting. In a busy commercial kitchen, it can be difficult and time-consuming to train staff on how to fill in hygiene and safety reports, and even more so to ensure these checks are done correctly in the middle of a busy service. To combat this issue, Pratt introduced the Monika monitoring system to keep an eye on all refrigeration temperatures, along with two probes for goods in and cooked items and a handheld device to stay on top of probing checks and opening and closing tasks.

 

He says: “Monika saves a huge amount of time that would normally be spent manually collecting data, and what’s more, it’s far easy and quicker to train all staff on how to use the equipment. The results are more accurate and ensure checks cannot be missed or made up. Checks can be done easily and are logged straight away which saves paper and storage.”

 

Monika’s smart cloud-connected system feeds all information gathered across Grocer’s Hall straight to a dashboard, while any notifications are emailed to Pratt. A hub in his office alerts him with an alarm and a flashing red light so he can quickly address any issues, which can be anything from an open refrigerator door to malfunctioning equipment.

 

Suppliers

 

Adande

 

adande.co.uk

 

Aquilo Refrigeration

 

www.aquilorefrigeration.co.uk

 

Husky

 

husky.co.uk

 

Ki-Tech

 

wearekitech.co.uk

 

Liebherr

 

home.liebherr.com

 

Monika

 

www.monika.com

 

Viessmann

 

www.viessmann-cool.com

 

Williams

 

www.williams-refrigeration.co.uk