UNIDO provides various types of green design tools as part of its technical assistance services. For the domestic and commercial refrigerator manufacturing sector, UNIDO is currently developing a modeling tool that allows manufacturers to estimate the cooling and energy efficiency of the refrigeration systems in different setups during the design phase.    

UNIDO under the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program, KCEP funded the project “Assessment of incremental capital and operating costs for improved energy efficiency in domestic, commercial and retail refrigeration” UNIDO ID 180009 which applied a design tool known as CERA to 6 manufacturing companies in Article 5 countries.

CERA – Commercial Energy Efficient Refrigerator Analysis model was originally developed by the US EPA and was further developed by the US Department of Energy. CERA has diverse modeling capabilities for domestic and small commercial refrigerators, but requires to be updated to include new refrigerator models such as new commercial refrigerators’ designs.

UNIDO initiated efforts to move CERA to a modern programming language under a creative commons licensing with a basic user interface, such that future versions can be improved or adopted by external funders. This new version will be hosted on Github with the aim of supporting manufacturing companies in developing and emerging economies to improve the energy efficiency of their refrigeration systems. 

The webinar on the refrigerator manufacturing cost guidelines is available on UNIDO's Youtube page.

For more information, please visit UNIDO’s Github page.