Frio
A smart fridge system for hotels
A team of students from Design Factory Melbourne and Kyoto Institute of Technology created Frio, an energy-saving smart fridge system for hotels using new innovative cooling technology from NKC-Kaimen.
THE TEAM
THE CLIENT
NKC Nakanishi Metal Works Co., Ltd. manufactures factory automatic products. Based in Japan, they have a global outreach with rich clientele. Now with their new venture in the research and development division – Kaimen, they are looking forward to solutions that can impact human life in the most effective way by developing products and systems for them. Kaimen has developed a compact and energy efficient microcooling compressor. NKC asked the team to re-purpose the small-sized cooling technology, for the dignity and health of society, through an asset-based design process.
THE CHALLENGE
Identify a problem which could benefit from NKC-Kaimen’s new innovative compressor-powered micro-cooling technology, and develop a solution using said technology.
THE SOLUTION
In hotel rooms, fridges are usually the most energy-consuming appliances and the current management process to optimise fridge energy consumption is labour-intensive and inefficient. Frio is an energy- and space-optimising smart fridge system for hotels. It integrates innovative, compact hotel room fridges with dedicated software that reduces energy consumption by monitoring and controlling the fridges according to hotel reservations. The fridge’s digital interface also improves guests’ experience with respect to food and drink consumption in hotel rooms.