News

Integrals Vs Remote Technology Monitoring Used in Refrigeration

Lowe Rental has been working side-by-side with the retail and refrigeration industries for over 40 years. During this time Lowe has witnessed a significant advancement in the technology used in integral refrigeration.

In the retail industry today permanent refrigeration systems purchased are typically either;

A) Plug-in integral units which are mobile and can be easily located anywhere in store.

Or

B) Remote systems permanently installed and piped from an external location to the display area of the shop floor.

The new generation of integrals now offer display and operating characteristics on par with their remote counterparts, tackling old limitations such as heat egress, noise and inefficiencies. Lowe’s technical experts are now seeing a growing number of integrals address traditional issues and deliver energy efficiencies that supersede those of the remote system.

Lowe recently commissioned an independent study on the energy efficiency of integral cabinets in comparison with remote systems. Carried out by Professor Judith Evans and her team at Refrigeration, Developments & Testing (RD&T) the study found that 5 out of the top 5 integrals cabinets are up to 15% more energy efficient than remote refrigeration systems.

Renting Vs Purchasing

In addition to the cost savings associated with some energy efficient, integral refrigeration cabinets, Long-Term Rental with Lowe challenges the traditional preference for purchasing refrigeration.

A fully managed and retail focused Long-Term Rental model benefits from a new era in integral technology, without using conventional capital investment methods, providing the retailers with the ability to:

✓ Avoid large upfront capital expenditure
✓ Avail of the new IFRS16 (Jan 2019) accounting code
✓ Have better control over cash flow, due to fixed payments
✓ Place new refrigeration technologies in store at the start of every contract
✓ Boost flexibility around their assets in store
✓ Reduce the time spent on fleet management, i.e. logistics, maintenance etc
✓ Reduce running costs due to the energy efficiencies that come with new equipment
✓ Reduce GWP & carbon footprint

Lowe’s recent whitepaper demonstrates how Long-Term Rental can offer up to a 10% cost saving when compared with the traditional cost of ownership associated with capital purchase.

For an in-depth look at how integral refrigeration can be a more cost effective option for retailers, especially when paired with Long-Term Rental, access the whitepaper here.