Plant Applications: Precision refrigeration slices cheesemaker’s energy costs

April 14, 2011

Situation

Grafton Village Cheese Co. makes about 2.4 million lbs. of its all-natural cheese each year, aging the cheese from one to four years in its warehouses in Grafton and Brattleboro, Vt.

Quality control is a "paramount virtue" for the cheesemaker. The product must be precisely refrigerated at 38 to 40 degrees F during the aging process.

Resolution

The company's two warehouses installed Freeaire® All Climate™ and Polar Package™ to provide the necessary cooling. The systems eliminate unnecessary operation to help achieve energy savings of 10 to 45 percent.

The Polar Package takes advantage of the winter season by moving superfiltered cold air from outside to inside. This eliminates the need for a compressor system and requires a fraction of the energy.

In designing the more recently constructed Brattleboro warehouse, the cheesemaker was able to use smaller evaporator units. According to the company, ordering the proper, scaled down equipment to be supplemented by Freeaire provided a significant savings at the outset of the project.

Using the Polar Package, the company cut energy use at the Brattleboro warehouse by 34 percent and reduced its yearly carbon emissions by nearly 217,000 lbs.

Freeaire Refrigeration, 151-8 Mad River Canoe Road, Waitsfield, VT 05673,
877-305-3733, www.freeaire.com