Walk In Cooler - Fan operation

[GallowsHillBrew]

This may be a pretty dumb question... I am not a refrigeration expert...

We have a walk in cooler. It is set to a temperature of around 4-6 celsius.
The cooling unit inside the room is a 3 fan unit.

At the moment the fans run all the time the compressor and cooling kicks in every once in a while to maintain temperature (as expected). I would expect the fans to kick in only when the compressors activate and a cooling cycle commences to lower the temperature.
If some level of circulation is required I would say one of the fans running should be OK.

Is my assumption correct, or should the fans run all the time? It just seems like quite a waste of energy.




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[Starcat]

Refrigeration

Your assumption is incorrect and the electricity used by the evaporator fans is nominal and necessary.
While the cooling coil fan may be cycled on Air Conditioning applications [generally] it will not work well at all when attempted with refrigeration.
It can cause major stratification of air and product temperature before the equipment cycles back on. You always need the air moving in a cooler.
This is also the case with heavy service load commercial air conditioning when run intelligently.
Freezer Fan banks are a slightly different matter.

[BrewinLou]

I have never seen a fan cycle on/off on an evaporator in a walk in cooler or freezer. The coolant of choice flowing thru the tubing is still below freezing and will form a block of ice in the fins if a fan is not circulating air. You could if you wanted set the fans to turn off when the defrost timer is set to turn off the compressor, but that will just make it take longer to defrost (during the time of year that it actually frosts). The only time I have seen one stop is when it has failed or a power outage. Cheers.

[GallowsHillBrew]

Thanks guys. Your comments make sense. I never gave the possibility of ice formation any thought.


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