Refrigeration Supply

the provision of refrigeration to various users. A distinction is made between centralized and decentralized refrigeration supply.

In centralized refrigeration supply, a common refrigerating system or refrigeration plant provides refrigeration to many objects either indirectly or directly. The indirect method entails the use of a secondary refrigerant; in the direct method, cooling is obtained by boiling a refrigerant in an evaporator at low temperatures. Examples of centralized refrigeration supply include the refrigeration supply systems of cold-storage facilities with many deep-freeze and storage compartments, of refrigerator trains in which one of the cars contains an indirect refrigerating system, and of chemical production facilities served by a common refrigeration plant.

In decentralized refrigeration supply, each object is cooled by a separate refrigerating machine. The objects to be cooled may be domestic refrigerators, laboratory freezers, commercial refrigeration equipment (for example, refrigerated cases, refrigerated cabinets, refrigerated counters, or walk-in storage coolers), or air-conditioning units; they may also be larger objects, such as freezing chambers, quick-freezing units with separate refrigerating machines, or refrigerators with separate machines for the storage compartments. For decentralized refrigeration supply, direct refrigerating systems are used more often than indirect systems.