York Navy Systems has designed a prototype compressor for a new generation of high-efficiency shipboard chillers for the US Navy fleet that the company says can reduce fuel consumption by 25 percent.
York Navy Systems began developing the chillers to improve shipboard HVAC systems in 2009 after winning an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-funded contract awarded by the US Navy.
Chillers provide cooling for ship weapons, command and control systems and crew comfort. Navy chillers must be designed for 35 to 50 years of service during which they will be exposed to extreme environments such as weapons-effect shock, heavy-weather ship vibration, and temperatures ranging from the Arctic to tropical locations, York says.
The Navy’s goals for the next-generation chillers are to:
Currently more than 90 percent of the vessels in the US Navy fleet use York air conditioning and refrigeration equipment.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandates that federal agencies, including the Navy, reduce their energy consumption 30 percent by 2015, based on a baseline year of 2003.
In 2010, the Navy implemented several sustainability projects aimed at reducing energy consumption ranging from testing experimental technologies to replacing light bulbs at a ballpark.
