Owning a large-unit refrigerator, like a cool room, means you own a high energy-consuming piece of equipment. However, you can make it more efficient.You can then directly save a significant amount of money on electricity bills for your business.
Some small changes in the way you use your cool rooms will improve not only its energy efficiency and impact on the environment, but even maintain the high-quality of products and make them last longer while stored.
Manage the door activity
How often you open and close the door to your cold room greatly impacts the running costs. The air from outside the cold room is laden with moisture and warmth. When this enters the room, your cold room system needs to work significantly harder to maintain a cool temperature. This increase of moisture in the air can also lead frost to form on evaporators, ceilings and products.
Measures to avoid this:
- Self-closing doors: Ensure all the doors to the cold room are self-closing. Train your staff to be aware of the impact of unnecessarily opening these doors. Put up signage to remind them to only open the door when they need to. Install lights that indicate when the door is open and alarms that sound if the door is open for too long.
- Door curtains: Regularly check that your door curtains are in good condition as they are the most cost-effective barriers.
- Door seals: Check your door seals for required adjustments and gasket replacement.
- Automatic forklift door: You can install an automatic forklift door for your cold room to ensure safety and speed.
Manage energy usage
Screen the energy usage of your cold rooms. Use a monitoring system to track how much energy your cold room uses. This information will allow you to make plans for reducing your energy usage as need.
If you’re installing a new cold room, make sure you select the right size according to your business needs. This will help to reduce wasting money. You don’t need to cool space that isn’t storing products.
Turn the lights off
Artificial lights create heat meaning your cold room system needs to work harder. Turn the lights off whenever possible.
Also, ensure that you only have as many lights as you need and they are all installed correctly, otherwise your energy bills may increase.
You can also switch to LED lights which not only use less energy than other bulbs but are also a better choice in cold rooms.
Consider installing an automatic sensor that turns the lights off if it doesn’t detect movement for a certain period.
Understanding your cold room
Take daily temperature measurements and always have your cold room’s temperature set to the optimum for the product. Do not over-cool the products. Make sure everything is at the right temperature. It is best to install sensors to avoid over-cooling.
Also, instruct your workers and give them proper guidelines about temperature control. Check the accuracy of your temperature measurement tools. Have a team of qualified technicians to do this job. Otherwise, the wrong measurement can mean you’re unnecessarily over-cooling your products.
Product stacking
Make sure the air is circulating around the walls and products. Avoid stacking any product against walls. Maintain a distance around the stock to allow enough airflow. Good air circulation makes it easier to cool a product so your cold room doesn’t have to work as hard.
If your products need to be frozen, make sure they get the required air circulation when first put in the cold room and then only stack them when they are frozen.
Regular maintenance
Maintenance is needed for all equipment to keep them running for a long period of time. So, keep checking your cold rooms and freezers regularly for any maintenance or repair needs. If needed, take the necessary steps to keep them working constantly, like calling a qualified technician.
Also, ensure your workers are using the equipment in the right way. This will help to avoid unnecessary repairing costs.
Upgrade the system
System technology plays a significant role in your cold room efficiency. If it is getting old, upgrade it now. It will be more efficient and save time. It could be an expensive solution in the short term but keeping the older one may be more expensive in the long term because of maintenance and repairs.
Recycle the heat
Refrigeration systems are also heat pumps. They move warm air from inside the closed insulation box to outside. You can also recycle this heat from your freezing systems and use it to warm other parts of your building and save on heating bills.
For this, you need to install an auxiliary heat exchange system between the compressor and standard condenser preventing heat exposure.
Keep your condenser units clean
Regular cleaning is also needed to keep your cold rooms efficient. Dust and debris does not only affect your product but also restricts airflow. Reduced airflow can damage your products and mean your cold room needs to use more energy to stay at the right temperature. This can be a drain on your finances.
Conclusion
Many businesses, like pharmaceutical, food processing and food services, need cold rooms and large-unit freezers. This technology can be expensive to buy, install and run. However, you can reduce your these systems energy consumption with these few simple steps above.
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