Sainsbury’s is Britain’s second largest supermarket chain with over 1,100 stores and it wastes a lot of energy trying to keep food products cold in multi-deck chill cabinets or freezers. Refrigeration accounts for a large portion of energy usage around the world and Williams F1 is now focused on making the systems better.
Williams F1’s Advanced Engineering group has designed a new aerofoil system for freezers that will keep the cold air in the cabinet instead of rushing out around your feet.
“Aerofoils help the airflow around Formula One cars and can improve their performance — and that’s exactly how they help the fridges in our stores, by keeping the cold air in,” said Sainsbury’s head of refrigeration John Skelton.
“This Formula One inspired innovation has already shown it can cut carbon produced by major refrigerators.”
Now I’m not sure what compressor these refrigeration units are using but if they stuck a Mercedes compressor on them, there is a good chance these chill cabinets may be faster or at least more reliable and efficient than the Renault-powered cars on the f1 grid this year. Wonder if it would make the 107% rule?
While the pundits continue to claim that road cars would still be in the Flintstone’s era if it were not for F1’s road relevancy focused regulations ushering in hybrid systems and more—which is bunk because the road car divisions had to help the F1 teams develop these—I say kudos to Williams for at least being honest and suggesting that F1 technology might be able to help other industries. I’ve argued for years that the road car manufacturers are doing just fine with their products and their education and ingenuity.
Here’s how it works:
Hat Tip: Reuters
