4energy’s COOLflow system is the world’s only zero-maintenance free air cooling solution. The system has been deployed at over 15,000 sites on three continents, achieving 90% reductions on cooling spend and up to a 30% reduction on the total site opex costs. The solution pays for itself in less than two years. TowerXchange speak to 4energy’s Chief Operating Officer, Param Singh to learn more.
TowerXchange: Please can you provide an introduction to 4energy to those not familiar with the company.
Param Singh, COO, 4energy:
4energy designs, develops and supplies energy efficient cooling products and industrial IoT solutions to tier one telecom, utilities and technology customers across the globe. Some of our customers include Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, Network Rail, Scottish Power and British Telecom.
The patent protected COOLflow, is the world’s only connected zero-maintenance free air cooling solution and has a five year filter guarantee. This product saves up to 90% cooling energy on technical sites including base stations, shelters and cabins. The typical ROI for our customers is less than two years.
Our state of the art industrial IoT solution with the SMARTset software platform and SMARTstation series of hardware, connects, analyses and controls any assets or equipment in critical facilities across the globe. It helps technical managers make decisions, manually or automatically, to reduce energy and maintenance spend or improve network performance.
TowerXchange: How suitable is free cooling for areas in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa with particularly high ambient temperatures? Does there need to be any modification to the technology?
Param Singh, COO, 4energy:
- Free air cooling works efficiently in the Middle-East and sub-Saharan Africa even at higher ambient temperatures. A combination of factors support free air cooling in these areas:
- The difference in the temperature between day and night, and average temperature during the year
- Radio kit and transmission equipment is often capable of working at higher ambient temperatures
- Use of free air cooling as a backup system to air conditioners to enhance network reliability
There is no modification required to the technology however free air cooling alone will not cool sites 100% of the time so it needs to be supported by active cooling or air conditioners.
We have deployed several thousand free air cooling systems for customers across Egypt.
TowerXchange: Please can you share some of 4energy’s experience in the telecoms space? Where have your systems been deployed and for which parties?
Param Singh, COO, 4energy:
We have been working very closely with telecom operators for the last eight years and our systems are deployed in multiple countries at over 15,000 sites.
Some of our customers include Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica and Bouygues Telecom. Our cooling systems are deployed on three continents in countries including the UK, Germany, France, Poland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Romania, Spain, Egypt and India and in a range of environments including cold, hot, clean, dusty, coastal and desert conditions.
TowerXchange: Typically, what kind of energy savings can be made by installing a free cooling system? Similarly how can this prolong the lifespan of other equipment?
Param Singh, COO, 4energy:
Our customers have experienced energy savings of up to 90% on cooling spend i.e. up to 30% of the site bill. Energy savings depend on various factors including:
- Existing cooling equipment on the site
- Ambient temperature of the region
- Set points of the site (at what temperature the site needs to be maintained)
- Capacity of the free air cooling system
Installing a free air cooling system on a site which is being cooled solely by air conditioning can prolong the life of the existing air conditioner. This is because the air conditioner will not be used 100% of the time, and will come on as a supplement to the free air cooling when the ambient temperature goes above a certain point, when free air cooling is not enough to cool the site.
TowerXchange: What kind of maintenance is needed and similarly how can monitoring of the cooling system be integrated into RMS platforms?
Param Singh, COO, 4energy:
Our COOLflow range of products (in its fifth generation) do not require any filtration maintenance compared to traditional competitors’ free cooling systems, where periodic maintenance is required every two to four weeks in, for example, countries such as Egypt.
We provide a five year guarantee on COOLfilter. We have over 500 million hours of guaranteed continuous operation of the filter over eight years years and without any maintenance requirements.
Our eController, is a state of the art controller that allows for the integration into an RMS platform using MODBUS or BACnet.
TowerXchange: What differentiates 4energy’s COOLflow system from other free air cooling products on the market?
Param Singh, COO, 4energy:
Our COOLflow system has significant advantages over other systems in the market:
- COOLflow uses COOLfilter with its’ patented zero maintenance filtration technology
- The COOLflow free air system is modular and upgradable to a full packaged system including active cooling
- The COOLflow free air system range offers multiple capacities including 10kW and 15kW at delta T of 10
- The COOLflow range comes with the eController which can be connected to an existing RMS or BMS system using MODBUS or BACnet.
