{"id":13217,"date":"2019-03-05T09:30:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T08:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/?p=13217"},"modified":"2025-11-13T10:08:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T09:08:29","slug":"conways-travels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/industries\/refrigeration-ventilation\/conways-travels_13217\/","title":{"rendered":"Conway\u2019s travels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Refrig\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion and freezer units<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Oper\u00ada\u00adtors can save a lot of money by using the right fans in their systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mehr Infos <\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Joe Conway\u2019s head is deep inside a freezer cabinet. He has been counting all the fans and every single light fitting. Then he comes out, writes down the numbers, and pulls the folding rule that he uses to measure the surfaces in the frozen foods section from his pocket. The commer\u00adcial manager of the Cross Group is exam\u00adining the SPAR super\u00admarket in Belfast; just like he previ\u00adously did in Newcastle and Coleraine. He has been exam\u00adining Northern Ireland\u2019s super\u00admar\u00adkets like this for several months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI went to each of the 70 stores myself.
This was the only way to pinpoint the project\u2019s scope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Conway, Commer\u00adcial Manager of the Cross Group<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Conway has a major project underway: in only three months, the cooling tech\u00adnology expert must replace 2,000 fans and just as many light fittings in the freezer cabi\u00adnets in 70 of the Henderson Group\u2019s stores. The company is one of the largest retail brands in Northern Ireland. In addi\u00adtion to the company\u2019s own 85 stores, it has the SPAR and EUROSPAR brand fran\u00adchise for the country, comprising over 450 stores. The main chal\u00adlenge: \u201cWe have to keep the stores open while replacing the parts,\u201d said Conway. \u201cThis is why we had to create the optimal plan. We didn\u2019t want to disturb the store customers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impres\u00adsive savings poten\u00adtial<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But first, back to the begin\u00adning: The retrofit was Dr. Glen Crumley\u2019s idea. He is the Henderson Group\u2019s energy manager. \u201cPart of my job is to propose a measure for lowering the Group\u2019s energy costs and carbon emis\u00adsions every year,\u201d Dr. Crumley said. When he met Tony Wright from ebm-papst UK at a confer\u00adence in London, he learned about a new option. \u201cWright\u2019s presen\u00adta\u00adtion there was about how much energy you can save by replacing AC fans in cooling systems with EC fans,\u201d he added. Since cooling systems consume between 30 and 60 percent of the energy in super\u00admar\u00adkets, he consid\u00adered it a key point of depar\u00adture. \u201cI was impressed by the numbers, but also appre\u00adciate the quality of the prod\u00aducts and ebm-papst\u2019s guar\u00adan\u00adtees and company history. So I gave the order for the retrofit to Cross Group and required them to procure the EC fans from ebm-papst,\u201d he explained. Along\u00adside the fans, they were asked to replace all the light bulbs in the freezer cabi\u00adnets with LEDs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nothing left to chance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After manage\u00adment at Henderson gave its approval, the Cross Group kicked off the plan\u00adning phase. \u201cI received infor\u00adma\u00adtion from the store managers,\u201d said Conway. \u201cBut I couldn\u2019t use it for detailed plan\u00adning. So I went to each of the 70 stores myself. This was the only way to pinpoint the project\u2019s scope.\u201d The Cross Group trained six subcon\u00adtrac\u00adtors to do the replace\u00adment work. Conway supplied them with plans. \u201cThe plans told them where they should park to avoid any incon\u00adve\u00adnience to store customers and how they had to behave inside the store and deal with customers, for example,\u201d he said. But they also spec\u00adi\u00adfied how many fans had to be put in which refrig\u00ader\u00adated display cases, which ones needed adapters and which precau\u00adtionary safety measures they would have to take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe retrofit went smoothly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Glen Crumley, Energy Manager of the Henderson Group <\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Henderson Group\u2019s stores are very busy, people are always entering and leaving. We didn\u2019t want to get in the way.\u201d Since the Cross Group needed the assis\u00adtance of the store employees, who had to empty the refrig\u00ader\u00adated display cases before their arrival and fill them imme\u00addi\u00adately after the work was completed, the work could only be done during the day, although some of the Group\u2019s stores are open around the clock.
After a six-month plan\u00adning phase, the subcon\u00adtrac\u00adtors started retro\u00adfitting. They replaced between 20 and 60 fans and light fittings per store, which took anywhere from a few hours to a maximum of two days. \u201cThe retrofit went smoothly,\u201d said Dr. Crumley. \u201cThey did not have to do any mechan\u00adical work on the unit bases and the fans could be replaced one-to-one. Only 15 percent of cases required an adapter. And for the most part, the stores could operate normally.\u201d After three months, the retrofit was completed.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Store employees had to empty the refrig\u00ader\u00adated display cases and fill them imme\u00addi\u00adately after the retrofit work was done. (Photo | Mariusz Smiejek \/ Fotogloria)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Savings for the bottom line and the envi\u00adron\u00adment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Henderson Group is really saving now. The retrofit reduced the fans and lights energy usage by 70 percent. As Conway explained: \u201cThe EC fans are not only more effi\u00adcient, they give off less heat\u200a\u2014\u200awhich trans\u00adlates into less cooling. The savings are tremen\u00addous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By replacing the fans and lighting the Group saves over 200,000 euros per year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In total, the old AC fans consumed almost 800,000 kWh per year, but the new axial EC fans use just under 150,000 kWh. By replacing the fans and lighting the Group saves over 200,000 euros per year. The invest\u00adment will be paid for after 20 months and the new fans are more reli\u00adable, quieter and have longer service lives. The envi\u00adron\u00adment also bene\u00adfits: After the retrofit, the Henderson Group emitted 550 less tonnes of carbon per annum. \u201cThe project was defi\u00adnitely one of our largest and most compli\u00adcated,\u201d said the commer\u00adcial manager. \u201cBut it was well worth the effort.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Refrig\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion and freezer units Oper\u00ada\u00adtors can save a lot of money by using the right fans in their systems. Joe Conway\u2019s head is deep inside a freezer cabinet. He has been counting all the fans and every single light fitting. Then he comes out, writes down the numbers, and pulls the folding rule that he [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,9],"tags":[31,97,101,117],"class_list":["post-13217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fans","category-refrigeration-ventilation","tag-ec-fan","tag-fans","tag-radial-fan","tag-refrigeration-technology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13217"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22304,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13217\/revisions\/22304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}