She said: “When we consider the capital expense, potential loss of revenue and the energy intensive nature of refrigeration applying preventative maintenance measures becomes a no-brainer.” She highlighted the increasing importance of emerging technologies to help contractors and end-users maintain existing systems: “Predictive maintenance leverages advances in technologies and data analytics to anticipate and address potential issues before they escalate. This approach not only enhances equipment reliability but also contributes to cost savings by minimising unplanned downtime and reducing the need for emergency repairs.”

The IOR Cool Talk Webinar held online on 18 January looked at various aspect that contribute to efficiency including component operation. Speaker John Broughton shared examples of good (and not so good) on-site practices and provided a series of useful and straightforward tips to improve the efficiency.

The presenters both confirmed that planned preventative maintenance is essential to ensuring a comprehensive approach to equipment care, fostering reliability, energy efficiency, and overall longevity. The advantages to be gained not only reduce the likelihood of unplanned downtime but also lead to cost savings and the sustained performance of systems.

While both speakers agreed that lack of or inadequate maintenance is the biggest culprit when it comes to inefficiencies, they highlighted that a lack of training is one of the biggest barriers to the roll-out of technology-based efficiency measures. On this topic, Lisa-Jayne Cook added: “As an industry we need to invest in training, so that we have the people that can analyse the data collected”.

If you missed the webinar, you can view the recording of this and previous webinars at https://ior.org.uk/technical/webinar-channel. IOR runs regular free online Cool Talks with guest speakers. Sign up to our website for news of future events at www.ior.org.uk