Energy Concerns Defrost on Demand

Imagine pulling up to a service station once a week and inserting the fuel line and turning it on for two minutes, and that’s it. You can quickly see the problems. What happens if you have a lot of driving and needed more fuel? Or what about if you had a quiet week and didn’t need much at all.

It’s a silly concept, but it is the way that fridges are defrosted. They periodically start the defrost cycle and run it for a fixed time. It doesn’t care if it needs it or not, and it doesn’t matter that it runs for too long. The point is that if it runs often enough for long enough there won’t be any ice forming. Ice blocks the transfer of heat and makes units less efficient. So the irony of trying to make the units more efficient is that it is done in the least efficient method possible.

The Victorian comany “Energy Concerns” has a better solution. They check for the presence of the ice which means it only turns on when it is needed. This may be more or less often, but the point is that it is needed. It then turns off when the job is done, not after a fixed period of time.

So Energy Concerns’ Defrost on Demand system ensures that energy isn’t lost through unnecessary defrost cycles.

Yes, it’s a blatant plug for them, but I think it’s a great idea and worth fully supporting. If you have commercial refrigerators and want to save energy (and money) then check out http://web.archive.org/web/20160109171333/http://energyconcerns.com.au/.

For Energy Concerns, temperature loggers allow them to monitor the fridges to prove that everything is working correctly and the fridges are holding the correct temperatures.