All-in-all, we see the market continue to maintain a positive trend in all the countries researched, driven largely by the replacement of systems. While the surge in energy prices has cooled down from the post-Covid crisis, energy savings remain high on the agenda of facility managers and refrigeration manufacturers.
In today’s refrigeration market, the retail sector accounts for more than two thirds of the sales of condensing units. Refrigeration systems account for 40–60% supermarkets’ total energy consumption.
Despite that, the use of large, centralised direct-expansion (DX) refrigeration rack systems running on R-404A are still very popular. The tendency is to move towards a distributed architecture, based on a mix of remote condensing units and self-contained appliances, but retrofitting comes at a cost. Owners and operators must ensure their investment delivers long-term viability and returns to their bottom line.
Another aspect of retrofit is driven by policy and the move away from high-GWP refrigerants. At BSRIA, we study how HFO/HFC blends, and natural refrigerants are gaining ground in the long term, and how it affects the type of compressor used in CU.