If you’ve owned or worked in a business that relies on a cool room, you already know that cool rooms are energy-hungry entities. As commercial refrigeration professionals, we’re going to teach you how to increase cool room efficiency to augment your bottom line. Every bit of energy saved counts towards your financial success and the longevity of the planet. With that said, let’s take a look at how to increase cool room efficiency:
Cool Room Door Management
The first thing to address is door management. Be sure to train your staff to keep the cool room door closed at all times. Door curtains are not loved by all, but they’re another very effective way to reduce the energy costs associated with poor door management. If your cool room is accessed by forklift often, consider installing an automatic forklift door to improve the safety and speed. Consider installing a smaller door for people to use when accessing the cool room so that they don’t have to use the bigger forklift door.
It’s important to manage the door effectively because the outside air is full of moisture and energy. If your staff continuously flood your cold room with ambient air, it will work harder to restore the optimum temperature. Moisture buildup on the evaporator in the cool room reduces its cooling capacity and increases energy consumption.
Optimise Airflow with the Cool Room
There must be enough space around and between products in your cool room for proper air circulation. Don’t pack your product flush against the walls of the cool room . Instead, leave a space so the refrigeration system to intercept the heat energy from outside. Leaving space between products helps keep them all at the ideal temperature and reduces the risk of warm spots. Lastly, avoid blocking fan outlets or evaporator returns with products as this reduces your cool room efficiency.
Increase Cool Room Efficiency by Defrosting
Leverage current generation systems to do regular defrosting. Defrost your cool room refrigeration system until the cooling coil is clear. Consider working with your fridge mechanic to decide on a preventative maintenance schedule that includes necessary defrosting – it keeps your cool room running correctly and ensures that it’s in line with seasonal requirements. Defrosts can be set up to be automatic. Additionally, be wary of setting them to happen too regularly. They should be less often for longer to get a better defrost and spend more time refrigerating.
Improve Product Management in Your Cool Room
You want to be able to access your products quickly and safely to augment your door management. Put up clear signage and create simple loading and unloading policies so that your staff can enter and exit the cool room with the products they need as quickly as possible. Give high turnover items the clearest access, for example. Use vertical racking to reduce the need to stack and reshuffle pallets.
Preventative Maintenance Will Increase Cool Room Efficiency
Creating a scheduled maintenance plan with your fridge mechanic ensures your cool room is always working at maximum efficiency. Get in touch with your commercial refrigeration specialist to discuss your hardware and how to take the best possible care of your equipment.
Commercial refrigeration is an important part of so many industries. Whether you’re involved in warehousing or the food industry, hospitality or supermarket retail, we at All So Cool have the right solutions to keep your business up and running. Say goodbye to unexpected downtime, high energy costs and cooling solutions that are bad for the environment.