Challenge

With the increased production of Lawson’s award-winning beers, a larger cold storage room was needed for staging the product while waiting for distribution. Lawson’s is a certified B corporation and offsets 100% of its electrical consumption. The owners did not want to add to global warming by using traditional hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants.

Solution

Traditional refrigeration systems utilize hydrofluorocarbons, and they invariably leak sometime during the lifetime of the system. These refrigerants are some of the most damaging greenhouse gases. The United States EPA identifies carbon dioxide (CO2) as having a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 1 and an Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) of 0. CO2 is easily accessible, non-toxic and environmentally friendly. Today’s common hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants have GWP’s ranging from 1,300 to 2,100.

With consideration of efficiency and the environment, natural CO2 refrigeration systems with high efficiency motors and variable frequency drives were installed. CO2 refrigeration systems are still relatively new but are becoming more popular as awareness increases. VHV worked with Efficiency Vermont to determine efficiency savings and incentives. This natural system will save Lawson’s $9,900 a year in savings over the lifetime of the system. This created an increased initial cost but was calculated to have a payback of 2.8 years from savings and incentives. The lifetime Carbon emissions reduction utilizing the CO2 refrigeration system is equivalent to eliminating the emissions of 2,267 gas powered cars driven for one year.

The new cooler was designed to maintain a temperature of 35˚F. All panels were constructed with an internal and external aluminum alloy sheet and an interior 4″ thick Urethane insulation. This provided an insulation rating of R 32. The panels were connected to each other with tongue and groove joints that utilized gasketing and cam lock fasteners.