Golden Corral Update - The Fourth Big Surprise

We've been eager to follow up on the progress of the IceCOLD treatment at the Golden Corral.  Stories from academia and government have been hinting at remarkable gains over time in both system efficiency and capacity.  I just had to check this out.
   My oh My!
I superimposed the new data on the old graph.  The results are far better than I expected.

We found no negative effects of the IceCOLD catalysts whatsoever.  

Golden Corral Cuts Annual Carbon Dioxide Emissions by 162,000 pounds

Big Cuts in Electrical Costs, Improved Comfort

Golden Corral in Topeka will save thousands in electrical costs while further improving interior comfort.  The ownership team has long sought lower operating costs but foremost is customer comfort.  They actively watch both temperature and humidity.  They were able to improve comfort and lower energy costs with the installation of IceCOLD.  Testing results show that they will save $6,500 per year in energy costs and this will save 80,000 pounds of coal that will not be used to make their power.  That's about one-half of a rail car.  This reduction in coal burned will save 162,000 pounds of carbon dioxide released annually.

In the most extensive testing we have done to date, Golden Corral in Topeka installed IceCOLD in all their cooling systems during the 2014 cooling season.  We tracked two of the five systems with a total 17 channels of data collected once per minute from early May to early September.  Knowing that humidity is a key factor in customer comfort, we tested humidity levels throughout as well.  

We used upgraded "low mass" thermocouples and highly accurate humidity sensors to compute actual unit cooling capacity and efficiency minute-by-minute throughout the period.  Before the test cycle began, our crew power washed the condensers, replaced belts and filters in all the units. Control settings and damper settings remained constant throughout the period.  The equipment performed reliably throughout the season.

The First Big Surprise

We know that cooling systems lose capacity over time but were shocked to find that the the equipment had lost a lot of capacity in the three years since it was new.  A system that should have produced nearly 240,000 Btu was actually working at 180,000.  By the end of the testing period, full system capacity was restored.  This chart shows that stage 1 capacity remained consistently high at high outdoor temperatures. Before IceCOLD, capacity dropped sharply as temperatures rose.

The Second Big Surprise - Efficiency
As the attached chart shows, system efficiency was raised sharply by the installation of IceCOLD.  We expect system efficiency to be sharply lower at higher outdoor temperatures.  We found that the system achieved much higher EER ratings and those ratings remained consistently higher at high temperatures where performance is most critical.

The Third Big Surprise - Humidity

We've been thinking that (and customers have said that) IceCOLD lowers humidity.  That needed to be verified.  The testing confirms that interior humidity is lowered and comfort levels are increased.  The surprise is that the effect took a full 30 days to be realized.

  We will re-visit the Golden Corral this summer and report system performance two years following installation.  Expect this information by the end of summer, 2016.

Winter Test on DQ Freezer Gives Solid Results

Good Place to Stop for a Treat

 
     About half way between where the skeptical brothers live and where I live is tiny Nelson, Missouri.  As such, the Fast N Friendly fuel and ice cream shop is a perfect place to stop for whatever I need, and I do every time.  All that ice cream takes a lot of freezer power and all that freezer power takes a lot of electrical power.  

    The owner knows this and has used IceCOLD before.  So he wanted some for this store and also wanted to try out AireServ's new Onset data loggers.  They spent a crazy amount of money for this rig, but it sure is nice.  

     I was thrilled because it's another shot at a winter freezer test where evaporator capacity improvement and compressor power improvement can be "parsed out" of the data. That turns me on but the owner is all about saving money.  Kevin only ran the logger for a week with the catalysts installed, but the system was already showing results.  The owner got what he wanted, I got what I wanted and Kevin got a Blizzard to go.  

Better than Expected Results

   This is the total power for the entire system.  A reading of 20 represents 2.0 kW.  The first thing you see is that the condensing unit actually cycles off after IceCOLD installed.  The reading of 7 is just the freezer's interior fans.  Prior to the injection of the catalysts, the compressor rarely stopped. The reasons turned out to be two-fold.  The IceCOLD did improve capacity as expected.  The second and less obvious reason is the scrubbing of oil fouling from the inside of the tubing.  A side benefit is that the particulates sticking to that goo are removed as well.  From the data we can see that the liquid solenoid valve was also leaking a small amount of refrigerant, causing the compressor to occasionally kick on and back off, wasting energy and shortening the compressor's life.

   The chart below shows the second reason, the increased cooling power developed by the system because of the catalysts.  We're seeing the results at the most expensive part of the system cycle, the cooling down after a system defrost.

 Initially, we saw a 30% capacity improvement that resulted in a 7 minute reduction in the "cool-down" period.  So, what about power consumption?  Beginning at the very first moment, power was cut for the "entire system" by 12% even though the outdoor temperature went up.  By day seven, power went down even further as the outdoor temperature rose even further.  I believe his savings this summer will further improve on this record.

Nissan Dealer Revives Old Air Conditioners

A Pair of Ancient Carriers

Topeka's Capital City Nissan recently moved into sparkling, newly remodeled quarters with lots of nice new features.  New heating and cooling units served the offices but something was missing, the air conditioning systems for the showroom were old and severely tired.  They had lost a lot of their original performance.  Could IceCOLD come to the rescue?  Could the product breathe new life into old systems?  After nearly a month of data gathering on the two systems for the showroom, we installed the product.  In a departure from normal procedure, we did not service the systems, only ensuring that they were running.  The reason for this was to understand more fully the catalysts' effect in a "real-life" environment where systems may not get the regular service they need.  One system had a very dirty condenser, the other was just slightly crudy.

These condensers were not cleaned and the filters remained semi-dirty throughout the testing.  During the run-up to the installation, we made sure that the state of the filters and the condensers did not change with time.  We expected that the test would show the importance of regular maintenance on cooling systems.  Possibly, the product would improve performance even under vastly less than ideal conditions.

After looking at the data, two things are abundantly clear.  Keeping cooling systems clean is critical to having them work properly especially in warmer weather and, secondly, IceCOLD can still work under less-than-ideal conditions.  Still, it cannot substitute for good maintenance.  I will be delighted to explore the results with clean systems this spring.

For the Technician: IceCOLD Effects and Considerations

Q.  How does the stuff work?
A. We are all perhaps aware of the claims, that IceCOLD improves performance while reducing power consumption.  In the last ten months and through 35 trials to date at diverse testing sites, we are beginning to see developing patterns.  In each case, and beginning as early as the moment of installation, compressor current drops.  In a few cases, the drop is close to 20% but at a minimum we see 7-9%.  In quite a few cases, the effect takes over 60 days to reach its maximum.   We have been able to statistically parse out the effect of improved condenser capacity from reduced compressor friction.  We did this by measuring performance in systems with "flooded condenser" systems.  Data was collected over a variety of conditions both above and below the (average) 52 deg temperature when device begins to close.  In this case, the controls completely eliminate any improvement in condenser capacity by adding more liquid refrigerant to the condenser and thereby keeping head pressure constant regardless of temperature.  Therefore, at these temperatures, any recorded drop in compressor current would be solely attributable to the action of the product's catalyst on the oil.

A second property of IceCOLD is the catalyst that reduces or removes oil fouling, the sticky globs lining the interior walls of both coils and the tubing itself.  ASHRAE acknowledges the impact of the problem and predicts that, over time, the effect can cut 30% off the system's efficiency.  In the field, we see an immediate reaction as the catalysts are installed.  Compressors equipped with with an oil sight glass quickly show increased oil levels and the pale yellow color disappears from the refrigerant sight glass.

   Since the oil sticking to the interior of the system may have trapped manufacturing debris, there is a concern.  All this crud will start moving within the system and sooner or later will end up in a filter drier.  If the original drier was undersized it may become restricted and will have to be changed.  This is not a big concern, but it does occur in about 3% of IceCOLD installations.  It has not been a problem in any installations where the original drier was sized correctly.

   The third effect is a reduction in refrigerant evaporating temperature.  We tested for that effect by placing thermistors directly into a refrigeration evaporator at random points. The particular coil was operating at 15 degrees delta T and the drop in temperature was 1.8 degrees immediately, a 12% increase in coil capacity.  A current test will use extremely low mass thermocouples in an attempt to further understand this action of IceCOLD.

Air Conditioner Test with IceCOLD Reveals Higher Efficiency, Higher Capacity and Lower Humidity - Remarkable!

   In a series of tests lasting 71 days, this couple achieved their goals with IceCOLD catalysts improving all aspects of their cooling system's performance.  We will call them Cole and Donna.  Cole had read of IceCOLD and wanted to see how it would work in his Topeka home.  As a mechanical engineering graduate from Kansas State, the best kind, he understood the underlying processes, but wanted to try it for himself.

  Humidity - As the testing began we not only noticed, but Donna pointed out, the high humidity in the home.  We saw that it was well over 60%.  When we returned two months later, we verified humidity levels in the home had dropped well into the low 40% range.

  Efficiency - During initial testing we found the compressor's gross efficiency at 90 degrees to be 9.6 EER.  As testing was concluded, the efficiency was measured at 12.6 EER.  This is an impressive gain of 31%.

  Capacity - The nine year old unit was observed to have a dry bulb capacity of 43,000 Btu at the same 90 degrees.  At the time of our follow-up testing, the capacity had increased to 53,000 Btu.  This is a gain of 23%.

 

More Results from the DeSoto Pizza Hut

   In our earlier post we noted immediate performance gains as IceCOLD was installed of 7% reduction in compressor power and a 24% reduction in compressor running times.  We promised additional results as the testing was completed.

   For this part of the data analysis, we used a statistical method called a "scatter diagram."  With this, the entire test data set of over 13,000 individual data points was placed into two pools, one before and one after the installation.  Each of these data pools was independently charted with compressor / condenser amps and outdoor temperatures.  These are presented here:

 Both graphs use linear regression analysis on the plot of data gathered.  The first gives us a formula:  Amps = 0.029 Temp + 4.0567.  The slope of the line (.029 in the pre-test) is the rate of increase in compressor Amps per degree Fahrenheit.  The R2 value is a measure of confidence, the "regularity or dependability" of the data.

   The second graph is data immediately following the installation of IceCOLD.  The data shows a different lower slope of 0.0225.  This is a "flatter" graph indicating lower power consumption at all temperatures.  

   This represents a 9% reduction in condensing unit power per minute at the temperatures present during the period.  The IceCOLD did not reduce cycle lengths below 50 degrees outside.  We expected this effect.  The absence of "flooded condenser control" in the condensing unit means that normal unit capacity is reduced during cool weather.  Above 50 degrees, the impact of the product was pronounced.  At 70 degrees outdoors, the compressor cycle length was cut by and average of 17%. At 80 and above, the reduction was above 20%.

    The important result is that the initial results were verified in a full-length test.  The noticeably quieter compressor operation continued from the moment of installation to the full length of the testing.  The initial finding of a overall power saving of 30% was confirmed for the full test period and at all temperatures available during the testing.