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.