Cooling supermarket counters, or ice in arenas or curling rinks require a great deal of energy. These buildings have a high energy density (500-1,000 kWh/m²), 50% of which comes from refrigeration; in addition, refrigeration systems give out more heat than buildings require for heating. Therefore, the building’s impact on the refrigeration system, and vice-versa, must be taken into account.

Refrigeration requires using refrigerants—in most cases, environmentally harmful, synthetic ones. Refrigerant losses result in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; these refrigerants produce, depending on the type, a greenhouse effect 1,500 to 3,000 times greater than that of CO₂.

CETC–Varennes is working to find and disseminate technological solutions to reduce GHG emissions from refrigeration systems and to promote energy efficiency. In that way, the Inernational Energy Agency (IEA) is an important partner of the Centre in refrigeration, especially with his Heat Pump Programme (HPP).

In the refrigeration field, the Centre’s activities focus on:

• Dissemination and development of skills and of readily available, proven technologies and practices,
  
  
• R&D; on refrigeration equipment and systems, and on their integration with buildings

For:

• Arenas and curling rinks, and
• Supermarkets.