Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Enviroaire is one of Ontario's leading HVAC companies offering preventive maintenance programs, service, and the installation of commercial and industrial HVAC equipment and products. It is evident that smarter use of energy spurs innovation, creates jobs, lowers utility bills, and cuts pollution. Refrigeration systems consume large amounts of electricity and thereby contribute greatly to the running costs of businesses with considerable cooling requirements. Improvements to technical elements and strategic management of these refrigeration systems have the potential to reduce energy consumption by 15%-40%. Hence more efforts are directed towards proper system design, integration of components and installation of appropriate control system. Enviroaire has recently launched energy-efficient enviro ZX refrigeration unit which requires an automated control system that can enable the unit to run more efficiently. The current project is aimed at designing an electronic module to both monitor and control these units locally as well as remotely. The controller unit will be PLC-based and built using certified parts; hence the company will not require any further re-certification of this module. The control systems on the unit will be able to reduce the energy, operation and maintenance costs, improves the system reliability, can also increase the productivity and reduce resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Many of their ZX units are being used in Ontario's leading commercial businesses. With the new control system Enviroaire will be able to monitor, service, and maintain them to perform to maximum efficiency and capability and provide more value to their customers. This will help them to sell more units and hence result in the growth of their business.