Refrigerant Leak Detection Programs Offer Multiple Benefits for Food Retailers
Managing the refrigerant in commercial refrigeration systems is important from an environmental, regulatory and financial perspective. Refrigerant leaks are caused by a number of factors and can occur in any system. For food retail facilities, the majority of leaks happen in refrigeration racks and cases. Investing in an effective leak detection program can help retailers to minimize and even eliminate costly refrigerant leaks altogether, ultimately improving store operations.
The Broad Impact of Refrigerant Leaks
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) GreenChill research, the average U.S. supermarket leaks an estimated 25 percent of its refrigerant supply per year. For an individual store, the loss of R-404A (common refrigerant) at $7 per pound would cause a single supermarket to lose about $6,125 annually to refrigerant leaks. Multiply that by 100 stores in a chain and the retailer could lose more than $600,000 annually. This estimate does not factor in additional costs, such as the associated labor fees, potential loss of business from the service disruption of fixing a leak and food loss or quality issues that could result.