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Feature
the capability of thermal storage in large-scale commercial applications , further highlighting its potential benefits for the South African market .”
HOW THERMAL STORAGE BEATS TRADITIONAL COOLING With thermal storage , businesses can lower cooling costs dramatically and reduce environmental impact . There are also at least four built-in advantages over traditional air-conditioning : flexible control , stored emergency cooling or redundancy , resiliency , and future proofing for smart grid preparedness .
With flexible control you can decide to use energy when it is most cost effective .
Thermal storage offers six modes of operation for various times of the day or year . During on-peak daytime hours , occupants and buildings may be kept cool and comfortable by the cooling stored within Calmac IceBank tanks . Occupants can be :
• Cooling with the chiller only .
• Cooling with ice storage only .
• Cooling with chiller and ice .
Charge and store ice with cheap night-time energy for daytime use . These factors all depend upon electrical rates , demand charges and demand response events . During night-time offpeak hours chillers can charge and store ice inside the energy storage tanks . During spring and fall when temperatures are milder , and cooling demands are lower , the ice can exclusively cool the facility .
Plan ahead with emergency cooling : With energy storage , you always have extra cooling on standby . During chiller maintenance , or for a quick several-hours cool down for your building , ice storage is available to meet the need .
Make a building resilient : In a power outage , people in a building can keep cool , productive , and comfortable . A backup generator can run controls , pumps and fans while staff evaluate the situation . With stored cooling , there ’ s no need for oversize backup generators to run chillers — you can get by without .
Airco national sales manager Wayne Muller lists the points to be taken into account when considering thermal storage for a building : “ The size of the building ’ s energy consumption - generally for a building over 250kw – determines whether one can consider thermal storage . The hours of operation are important as you need time to build ice at night when electricity is cheaper , as well as issues of peak cooling in
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RACA Journal I August 2023 www . refrigerationandaircon . co . za