AoFrio, a global technology company headquartered in New Zealand, has been named the winner of the ‘Incremental Change in Energy efficiency’ category at The Cool Challenge, an initiative led by the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER).
This achievement marks an important milestone for AoFrio, a global leader in creating and manufacturing cutting-edge and sustainable Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and high efficiency motors for commercial refrigeration.
BIER is a coalition of leading global beverage companies working together to advance environmental sustainability within the beverage sector. Its new initiative, The Cool Challenge, invited innovators to revolutionize commercial refrigeration related to chilled, canned, or bottled beverages at their point of sale, and shape a sustainable future for the industry.
AoFrio entered the ‘Incremental Change in Energy efficiency’ category, which required applicants to present solutions which optimize energy efficiency by leveraging existing compressor technology and pushing boundaries. Entries were judged by global sustainability leads amongst the likes of Heineken, AB InBev, and Coca-Cola.
AoFrio received the win for its solution ‘AoFrio Inside’, which showcased the energy efficiency savings its customers can achieve if they implement the breadth of its hardware and SaaS offering in their coolers. AoFrio can reduce its customers’ energy-use by an average of 54% when compared to a basic cooler of the same capacity*.
AoFrio Inside is a complete refrigeration solution that combines the best of hardware, software, and cloud-based services – it includes the following:
- AoFrio ECR 2 motor – a high-efficiency motor that uses significantly less power than shaded pole motors, saving energy and money.
- AoFrio SCS controller – a smart IoT controller that connects your cooler to the AoFrio ecosystem and enables you to monitor and control the cooler’s temperature, locations, sales, power consumption, and operational effectiveness.
- AoFrio Insights platform – a dashboard view that enables customers to understand energy usage patterns and optimization opportunities for their cooler fleet.
Greg Balla, CEO of AoFrio, says: “We believe that refrigeration should not only keep drinks at the optimal serving temperature, but also promote industry sustainability by reducing power usage.
That’s why we created AoFrio Inside, a system that uses advanced technology to minimize energy consumption in commercial refrigeration fleets.
Our vision is to provide our customers with the hardware and data-driven insights that enable them to remotely optimize their fleets for energy efficiency gains”.
*Based on internal testing data from Criotec. Actual results may vary depending on usage conditions and other factors.
