Cappagh House, Centra High-Convenience is the 1st convenience store in Ireland to use exclusively natural hydrocarbon refrigerants rather than conventional hydro-fluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants. HFC refrigerants are being gradually phased out within the EU as they are damaging to the environment thus alternatives such as hydrocarbons should be used in order to future proof commercial refrigeration installations.

Hydrocarbon refrigerants such as R290 & R600a offer several advantages. They are relatively cheap, highly efficient, eco-friendly & will not be subject to any phase-out within the EU.

Cappagh house uses 3 distinct types of refrigeration system in order to achieve it’s 100% hydrocarbon status:

1. Plug-in hydrocarbon cabinets such as spider fridges & dual temp islands. These work just like any plug-in appliance but using R290 natural refrigerant instead of a conventional HFC refrigerant.

2. Remote glycol cabinets such as open fruit & veg multidecks. These cabinets work similarly to a conventional remote cabinet but use a sub zero glycol solution in the cooling coil rather than a refrigerant gas. The glycol is efficiently cooled by plant which is located outside in the open air.

3: The Hybrid flow system by JBG: These are plug-in hydrocarbon cabinets which feature a plate heat exchanger that uses water to transfer heat from the cabinet to a dry cooler located in the open air outside. To achieve maximum efficiency, the water in the flow system is pumped through the plate heat exchanger only when it is necessary to avoid a high ambient temperature in the store. During winter the heat rejected from the cabinet is exploited for free heating inside the store and the heat exchanger is not used.

The specific cabinets in this project which feature the hybrid flow system are the JBG RDGA-L4z multideck. The RDGA-L4z features a maintenance free non-lamellar condenser which does not collect dust like conventional fridges & thus does not need to be cleaned periodically.

In keeping with the green credentials on this site, an efficient low GWP R32 air conditioning system from Mitsubishi Electric was installed.

If you would like to know more about R290 & R600 commercial refrigeration solutions from coolrite, call us on 01 8214833