Food Simulating Sensor Medium : Emerging Technology Application in Commercial Refrigeration

The emerging technology is a National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) certified food product simulating sensor medium that changes the existing ‘air-temp’ thermostat into a ‘food-temp’ thermostat in a refrigeration unit. By enclosing the existing temperature sensor in a proprietary medium, the technology simulates the thermal characteristics of the product instead of the air surrounding the food product being refrigerated.

This study found that there was a 7% decrease in starts per day; an average of 19.4 starts per day were logged in the baseline period, compared to an average of 18.1 starts per day logged in the post-retrofit period.

More importantly there was a 14% reduction in duty cycle of the compressor which led to energy savings. In the baseline (2019-2020) the compressor consumed a total of 1,827 kWh over the approximately 36.6 day (878.75 hour) period. Over the same 36.6 day period in 2020-2021 (post-retrofit) the same compressor consumed 1,568 kWh which was a 14% reduction compared to the baseline.

It is important to note that while the post-retrofit measurements were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, the operations at Petco Park were gearing up for fans in the stadium starting in April 2021 and there was the usual level of activity. A low use period of the year (December to January) was deliberately selected for both the Baseline and Post-Retrofit measurements to provide a like-for-like comparison of low-season to low-season. Comparing high-season to high-season was not possible due to COVID.