Tag Archives: compressor

How green are you?

How green are you?

Energy Rating Details
You see it everywhere but do you take any notice of it? It says something important but do you know what it means?
The European Union introduced a rating system for all electrical goods to tell the buyer how energy efficient the item is to run. Here is what WHICH? Magazine says about fridges and fridge freezers:

Fridge and freezer energy labels

Under EU legislation, every new fridge, freezer and fridge freezer sold in the UK must have an energy label that gives its energy rating. Since 1 July 2012, all new models must have a rating of A+, A++ or A+++. Retailers can still sell stocks of older models so you may still see A or B rated fridges or freezers in the shops.

This means that items rated A (the yellow band) to D (the red band) were rated before 2012. You can take it that this means that the older style of label does NOT comply with today’s energy rating which are much stricter.

Does this matter? Well, if you are concerned about the effect or the cost of wasted energy, it does. It also tells you about the contribution the appliance does to the environment.

So when you buy a Vitrifrigo Compressor minibar, A+++ or A++, you are not only going to save money but play your part in saving the environment.

Compressor vs Absorption

Compressor minibars or Absorption minibars; what’s the difference?

minibars-comp-vs-absorb

There’s a world of difference in performance, cost and economy of operation between Absorption and Compressor minibars. Briefly, absorption minibars cost less to buy but a lot more to run.

The reasons for the difference is very technical so let’s not dig down too far! Refrigeration is a process of exchanging heat by evaporating a refrigerant. By the mid-20th century, most refrigerators were of the compressor type and used a chlorine-based refrigerant, CFC, which was banned because of its destructive effects on the Earth’s Ozone layer. So the absorption process became more commonplace in domestic refrigerators although the cooling process takes longer and is more expensive to run.

The space age, however, demanded greater efficiency in a more compact form. This gave a new lease of life to the compressor refrigerator, one that had no toxicityand was far faster in reaching the desired temperature of around 4ºC. Vitrifrigo, through its parent company, Rivacold, commercially developed this innovation for their minibars which are over 85% more economical to run and reduce the temperature from ambient to cold four times faster than the absorption method.

The new compressor minibars belong to the NEXT DM series, which haS been awarded the highest possible EU Energy rating: A+++ for the solid door version and A++ for the glass door version.

Vitrifrigo’s absorption minibars are nevertheless an excellent choice for the budget conscious hotel. They are rated A+ and employ Low Power Consumption (LPC) technology and are virtually silent in operation.