Factory cooling: have you considered the total cost of ownership?

Posted by Paul Langford on 29/10/13 11:27

total cost of ownership

If you are considering a cooling system for your factory, don’t make the mistake of focusing solely on the initial investment: consider the total cost of ownership of the system and what the critical elements which influence this are.

High energy costs with a traditional HVAC system

With a good “traditional” HVAC system such as an air handling unit, the running costs can account for as much as 87% of the Total Cost of Ownership – e.g. the ventilation fans, the pumps and the cooling system.

You can get dramatic savings in running cost with evaporative cooling

Evaporative cooling can slash running costs considerably, as Dutch company Fonterra is finding out at their dairy factory in Heerenveen. The original investment in the new evaporative cooling system amounted to a very small percentage of the total costs of ownership; the balance related to the running of the plant.

Typical calculations show that the CoolStream system barely uses 10% of the energy that a “traditional” chilled water HVAC system would need to maintain the same conditions. Just think what a difference the new system will make to Fonterra’s energy bills!

Read the full case history.

If you want to know more about evaporative cooling you can:


Paul Langford - Engineering director Paul Langford is an Engineering Director with experience in product development, manufacturing and testing for HVAC, solar shading, louvre systems and smoke control applications.

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Topics: Productivity, HVAC, Energy saving, Evaporative cooling