One of the world’s premier entertainment venues, the O2 Arena, provides catering through a wide variety of bars, restaurants and corporate suites. The largest concerts and events attract 20,000 guests, so the caterers need to know that their cold stores and beer chillers won’t let them down.

Parasense Protects Critical Refrigeration

Refrigeration specialists, Godfrey & Lappage are responsible for maintaining much of the infrastructure, including two very large refrigeration packs, located at opposite ends of the site.  Between the two there are 17 compressors and hundreds of meters of pipework carrying R-404A refrigerant around a complex network.

Preparations for major events put a huge load on these systems, so the time when they are most needed is also the time when unnoticed leaks are most likely to turn into problems.

With the pressure on and a large, extended system to inspect, it was taking the refrigeration engineers too long to locate and repair refrigerant leaks. Add the rising cost of R-404A refrigerant and changes in F-Gas regulations; they knew it was time to act.

Refrigerant Leak Detection

The team at Godfrey & Lappage recommended that their client invest in a refrigerant leak detection system, which would be sensitive enough to detect leaks early and also give a good indication of where they were occurring.

Based on previous experience of product effectiveness, reliability and service support, they recommended only Parasense products.

Parasense supplied and installed two GRM2 infrared refrigerant leak detection systems, one for each refrigeration system. Each is connected to a network of unobtrusive tubes, which draw air from carefully chosen sampling points around the refrigeration system, including compressors, evaporators and control valves.

Parasense engineers worked closely with the Godfrey & Lappage team to install the leak detection system, ensuring zero disruption to events at the Arena or to the hundreds of on-site catering staff.

Avoiding Critical Failures and Reducing Costs

Since the Parasense system was commissioned it has operated continuously and provided alerts to several refrigerant leaks in different parts of the system, which would have otherwise gone undetected.

By giving refrigeration engineers reliable information about the location of leaks, the Parasense solution is saving them valuable time and reducing maintenance costs.

Most importantly, management and catering staff can be confident that their critical refrigeration assets will remain 100% available, with any issues being identified and resolved early, rather than remaining hidden and failing due to the extra load on major event days.