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Refrigeration and Development The development of many industries and most countries has been influenced, at least in part, by refrigeration. For an overview of refrigeration’s influence on UK industry, read on, or print out these pages. Overview Refrigeration plays an important part in modern industry in the UK. It is estimated that refrigeration accounts for the use of 15–25% of electricity generated in developed countries. In the UK alone, it is estimated that about 40,000 GWh of the annual national consumption of electricity of 283,000 GWh, is used on refrigeration – that is about 14%. The major commercial uses of refrigeration and freezing are shown below: Commercial refrigeration market shown by industry according to electricity consumption (1993). From ETSU, Energy efficiency best practice programme (AEA Technology plc) research data. Click here to find out what these industries using refrigeration for. Major Users of Refrigeration Sector Activity Volume Domestic This includes fridges and freezers in the kitchen used for storing food and homes with air conditioning. It is estimated that there are 36 million domestic fridges in the UK. Transportation This includes refrigerated containers, lorries and boats used to carry perishable produce. World-wide there are about 1,000,000 refrigerated road vehicles, 400,000 refrigerated containers and 1,000 refrigerated ships. Industrial This includes cold store warehouses, processing plants (eg, food and drink such as milk production, brewing, ice cream, meat and vegetable processing) pharmaceutical industries and ice production for cooling fresh produce, eg, fish. Estimated at 2,000 large enterprises and about 13,000 small- to medium- sized companies in the UK. Commercial (Retailing) This includes supermarkets and their cold stores, licensed premises, shops, hotels and restaurants. There are about 300,000 small refrigeration systems, and coldstores; about 8,300 supermarkets in the UK. Air Conditioning This includes air conditioning in all sorts of locations - shops, hospitals, computer rooms, offices, as well as systems used in aeroplanes, trains and cars. About 400,000 direct air conditioning systems are installed in the UK and another 20,000 secondary systems. Teachers Centre |Email| More Links | HOME