Seeley International has been producing some of the world’s most advanced cooling and heating systems for the past 50 years. The company is headquartered in Australia but their cooling systems are installed all around the world, including the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Climate Wizard is a 100% fresh air system that uses indirect evaporative technology to deliver hyper-efficient cooling. By using evaporative processes within a counter-flow heat exchanger, Climate Wizard is able to provide pre-cooled fresh air at extremely low temperatures without any added moisture. This is a game changer for food and beverage manufacturers.

“Many businesses, especially in the food and beverage space, require cool air with no added moisture - without sacrificing energy efficiency,” says managing director Jon Seeley. “It also has the added benefit of being able to merge with existing refrigerated systems to lower overall energy consumption.”

Applications

Seeley’s indirect cooling technology is used in food processing facilities, retail operations, manufacturing facilities and car dealerships, but Jon is particularly excited about its growing popularity in wineries.

“Climate Wizard has now been installed in over 40 barrel halls in Australia, and we are expanding into South Africa, Europe and the United States. The system allows wineries precise control over humidity levels in barrel halls, minimises yield loss to evaporation and lowers energy costs by up to 80%.”

Climate Wizard works well in both small and large venues - everything from small retail shop fronts to large barrel halls with over 100 000 barrels. “Some of our installations in South Africa have included a small farm grocer and wine shop in Paarl, a 400-person wedding venue in Franschhoek and a 3600 m2 cherry-packing facility in Ceres,” says Jon.

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Seeley Managing Director, Jon Seeley, in a large barrel hall where Climate Wizard has been installed.

The technology

Climate Wizard utilizes highly innovative, patented technology to provide unmatched performance, delivering colder air and higher efficiency than any other indirect evaporative cooling technology. Unlike refrigerated air conditioners, which use a compressor and environmentally harmful refrigerants, the Climate Wizard relies on the natural process of evaporation.

“No chemicals are involved,” says Jon. “Importantly, the technology allows businesses to significantly reduce their carbon footprint, so it’s a sustainable choice. Many climates which are generally considered to be harsh on conventional cooling equipment (and energy bills) are in fact ideally suited to evaporative cooling solutions.”

“Unlike conventional systems, the Climate Wizard has no compressor and no refrigerant gas. There is just a fan and a small pump to recirculate water, relying on the natural process of evaporation and our sophisticated, patented heat exchanger. This uses 80% less electrical power than a comparable conventional system, for the equivalent air conditioning performance. During the hottest times of the year, refrigerated systems use more power to effectively cool air. That’s not the case for Climate Wizard, and it’s this point of difference that can provide energy savings of up to 80%.”

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The Climate Wizard system installed

The Seeley advantage

The benefit? “Climate Wizard provides 100% fresh, filtered outside air,” says Jon. This makes for a much more pleasant and healthy environment. You can also leave your doors open, which is great for restaurants, cellar doors or any spaces with significant human traffic.

“Temperature is one of the most important controllable variables in the winemaking process, since installing four Seeley Climate Wizards to control the climate of our new state of the art barrel hall we have seen a significant increase in wine quality,” says Richard Angove, Joint Managing Director at Angove Wines, South Australia, where the system has been installed.

“The main benefits are in retention of freshness and importantly in the vibrancy of colour. Our 2018 wines show a significant increase in both these aspects and are some of the best wines we have made,” Richard adds. “The Climate Wizard has had a measurable impact on wine quality.”

Seeley has offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town.