PECM Issue 16 2015 | Page 80

Chiller Hire Preserves Food During Plant Outage T he addition of a range of compact, self-contained chillers to the Andrews Chiller hire fleet at the turn of the century was a timely introduction and were immediately called into action as they provided the perfect, simple, temporary solutions for organisations forced to take inhouse chillers off-line to up-date in accordance with new EU regulations and directives regarding use of HCFCs. During the past decade many organisations operating chilled and cold stores have had to implement planned maintenance programmes for a R22 refrigerant swap out or consider 80 PECM Issue 16 a more costly option of investing in totally new plant. Organisations had to consider whether the converted plant using refrigerate such as ODS would be able to deliver and achieve the same cold-store conditions. Abiding by the rules, new equipment using HCFC refrigerants like R22 was banned from 2001 (or 2004 for small air-conditioning systems) and since 1st January 2010 the use of virgin HCFCs to service and maintain existing refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) equipment was also banned in all EU Member States. From 1st January this year it has been illegal to use any HCFCs to service RAC equipment, As a major specialists in chiller hire, around 70% of Andrews Chiller work is solving emergency situations hence recycled or reclaimed HCFC may no longer be used. Lawful Gains For chiller hire specialist, Andrews Chiller Hire, the regulations were to reap significant rewards particularly in supporting food related sectors such as those operating large chilled and cold stores. Within its chiller hire fleet it offered the perfect low-cost solution that would provide a temporary aircooled chilling service during in-house plant replacement or plant downtime for conversation to run on refrigerants such as RA10A. With its newly acquired Fast Chill range