A premium food store refrigerated with the Daikin Zeas system
A new Prezzemolo & Vitale store was recently opened in the historical centre of Palermo, where the goal is customer satisfaction through excellent products and attentive and professional service. Prezzemolo & Vitale food stores are designed down to the smallest detail to create environments that are comfortable, familiar, and at the same time functional to welcome customers who are focused on quality, ethics, and love of food.
Each Prezzemolo & Vitale store is also carefully organised to present each product in the best possible manner and to make shopping as comfortable as possible. To meet these needs, a Daikin Zeas system was chosen, able to guarantee the right acoustic and climatic comfort, as well as 24-hour refrigeration of the open and closed refrigeration cabinets and showcases, by means of three factors: inverter technology, the extreme compactness of the condensing units, and their low noise level.
The solution for acoustic comfort and space requirements
Refrigeration condensing units are the heart of refrigeration systems for any type of store, supermarket, restaurant, hotel, or food production facility. Unfortunately, as is often the case in city centres, the Prezzemolo & Vitale store also had some restrictions in terms of space to be allocated to the outdoor units of the refrigeration system for cold rooms and refrigeration cabinets and for the air conditioning system.
The solution that could best meet the needs of the Palermo food store was determined to be the Daikin Zeas system, consisting of extremely compact condensing units suitably positioned on a small platform overlooking the building's inner courtyard. Together with the two Zeas units, a VRV system was installed to power the 4-way blow indoor cassette units for the air conditioning of the food store interior.
Zeas medium and low temperature condensing units were developed by Daikin to deliver temperatures from +10 °C to -45 °C. They are manufactured according to an industrial design similar to that of Daikin VRV units, which are widely used in the air conditioning service sector, as is the case with the Prezzemolo & Vitale store. The Zeas system applies the VRV (Variable Refrigerant Volume) principle with inverter technology also to refrigeration, and its advantage lies in the fact that it responds much more quickly to load variations than traditional systems, without any loss of efficiency. This makes it particularly suitable where there is a need to maintain the proper temperatures for open and closed refrigerated display cabinets, which are therefore considerably influenced by ambient conditions, subject to frequent door opening/closing and in the presence of cold rooms that are subject to frequent goods turnover and therefore to large variations in heat load. Lastly, the extreme low noise level of Daikin Zeas systems makes them suitable for installation in food stores of all sizes, as they are equipped with compressors with high grade sound insulation, thanks to the inverter control that makes it possible to keep the fan speed low while continuing to meet the cooling demand. The sound level can be adjusted according to environmental requirements or the time of day. At night, for example, maximum fan speeds can be lowered to reduce noise, with only a limited loss of refrigeration capacity. The fans have blades and grills designed specially to reduce turbulence and lower noise further.
High energy efficiency for sustainable activities
The use of silent and efficient air conditioning and refrigeration systems has met the needs of the owners of the Prezzemolo & Vitale store also from the point of view of economic benefits, since Zeas systems are able to guarantee energy savings of between 30% and 50% when compared to the consumption of an on/off system. Thanks to the DC Inverter Scroll technology of the fans and compressors of the outdoor units, it is possible to significantly reduce consumption compared to traditional units and allow maximum control of variable loads in refrigeration cabinets. The optimal energy consumption of Daikin refrigeration systems is made possible thanks to the Economizer function which increases evaporator capacity while requiring lower power consumption; this is achieved while the discharge temperature decreases, saving energy and providing benefits to the compressor. A decrease in the outside temperature and load in the condensing unit will cause the speed of the inverter compressor and the fan and the condensing temperature to change automatically.
In Zeas units, for example, the configured evaporation temperature can be increased by an external signal. To avoid the risk of freezing the products during night mode, the evaporation temperature of Zeas units can be increased up to a maximum of 3 °C above set temperature. In this manner Zeas units can be used to lower the temperature of the products to their required storage temperature, increasing the refrigeration load only during the period required for cooling. When the desired temperatures are reached, the load and energy consumption will be reduced.
Conclusions
The high-efficiency inverter technology of Daikin Zeas systems represents the most cost-effective solution for food stores, as they offer cutting-edge refrigeration technology for complete reliability and controllability, with the smallest footprint, ease of installation, and maximum energy efficiency, with a reduction in CO2 emissions and operating costs. The extreme quietness of the condensing units makes the Daikin Zeas system suitable to be installed anywhere, even in city centres.
Interviews with key figures
Giusi Vitale, Prezzemolo & Vitale store owner
What features does your recently opened store have?
“Our company is in retail sales. We have supermarkets where we sell conventional, organic, local, and excellent products. The need to find a suitable system originated with the opening of this store because, in addition to ensuring sustainability and low consumption, we had to solve the problem of lack of space. We are right in the historical centre of Palermo, protected by the Superintendence, in a pedestrian area, so you can imagine how problematic it was to place the units outside the building. The Daikin solution was suggested to us by our authorized Daikin service centre, which proposed installing this system. We relied on Daikin's experience because I think that choosing a system manufacturer that is also able to guarantee adequate after-sales service is extremely important.”
Giuseppe Rubino, owner of V.R.C. Cold S.r.l. of Palermo
What are the advantages of using Daikin refrigeration systems?
“The refrigeration system operates through two Zeas units which have made it possible to separate the two refrigeration systems and limit the size of the outdoor units. The most important requirement was that the systems used had to be sufficiently powerful to meet the refrigeration needs of the entire store. They also had to have features such as low noise levels and the possibility of being able to position the outdoor units even in tight spaces, which is typical for retail stores located in city centres. For these reasons we chose Daikin, because their Zeas units allowed us to meet our food cooling and air conditioning needs thanks to their aesthetics and dimensions similar to those of the VRV unit. They were ideal for this application. Thanks to the inverter technology of the compressors and fans, the system also ensures low noise levels.”
Reference sheet - Prezzemolo & Vitale store
▪ System type: Daikin Zeas refrigeration system and Daikin VRV air-conditioning system connected to 4-way blow cassette units
▪ Location: Palermo
▪ System installation: Giuseppe Rubino, V.R.C. Cold S.r.l. of Palermo
