These systems account for 40 to 50 percent of a supermarket's or convenience store's total energy use and energy efficiency can generally be substantially improved. For such businesses, where profit margins are very low, reducing these costs can significantly improve profits. To best serve these commercial customers, an understanding of central commercial refrigeration systems is required. More Information Description of the Technology Figure 1 presents the basic components of a commercial refrigeration system.
Heat is removed from the product display cases and discharged to the outdoors.
This unit pulls the refrigerant gas from the evaporator through refrigerant piping and compresses, or pumps it up, to a much higher pressure. Compression also results in a much higher temperature for the gas. Compressors are usually centrally located in a machine room at the back of the store. Typically located outside, this is a heat exchanger which transfers the heat from the refrigerant to the outdoors. All the refrigerant vapor changes back into a liquid, but it is still at the same pressure as when it entered the condenser.