Jul 20, 2009 8:42 AM

Danfoss, a manufacturer of electronic controls, components, compressors, and variable-speed drives for air-conditioning and refrigeration, introduces the AK-CS, a new controller designed specifically for small food retail facilities.

Ideal for convenience stores, restaurants, small warehouses, and institutional cafeterias, the AK-CS controller can reduce a facility’s operating costs by 10% to 15% through energy savings, reduced maintenance costs, and food loss.

The AK-CS controller is a suitable replacement for mechanical controls or older electronic systems in small food retail facilities. It controls and monitors all major energy-using systems, including refrigeration; heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC); and lighting. The controller uses an Echelon communications link coupled with modular input/output (I/O) boards or stand-alone smart controllers.

This controller monitors a facility’s energy use with a kilowatt-hour meter installed on the main power service. Such meters can also be installed on subsystems such as refrigeration and lighting. By using a central EIS (Energy Information System), a retailer can look at energy usage across all store locations, and create energy baselines for each facility or system. The EIS creates an alarm when a store’s energy usage is above its baseline, allowing the facility operator to take corrective actions.

The AK-CS provides logs of all I/O points and alarms for critical systems. Logged data can be saved and accessed for one year or more. This controller features a full web browser for remote access and a USB port for software loading/saving functions. The controller can be connected to a facility’s Wide Area Network and viewed or programmed by any web browser accessing an onboard web server. XML protocol is provided to allow access to data from third-party software.

Contractors interested in installing the AK-CS may purchase the product through United Refrigeration’s network of wholesale outlets. United Refrigeration has been designated as the exclusive partner for the AK-CS launch and may be contacted at www.uri.com or 1-888-578-9100.

For more information, visit www.danfoss.us/foodretail.