The ever-rising costs of utility bills can be a real headache for businesses, impacting on their overall profitability, and in some cases, ultimately their viability. This can be an even bigger concern if you have a cold room. There’s no doubt that cold rooms can make your energy use and food storage much more efficient but there are ways of using your cold room that can help to ensure that running costs stay low.
Opening and closing doors
As with a regular fridge or freezer, you shouldn’t leave your cold room door open for any length of time. Any alteration, no matter how minimal, to the temperature in your cold room can cause it to have to work harder. It’s important therefore to try to keep your cold room at as consistent a temperature as is practically possible. That means keeping the amount of time the doors are open when you go in and out of your cold room to a bare minimum. Rapidly close the door each time you leave the cold room.
Efficient loading and unloading
A pressure point when it comes to cold room energy usage is when it’s being stocked. Developing efficient and unloading practices inside your cold room can help to reduce the amount of energy wastage.
If you take a long time to stock your cold room or if the doors are left open for extended periods of time it can allow warm air to flood your cold room. This will have a negative impact on energy efficiency, particularly in the summer months. When you load your cold room try to do it in manageable stages. While doing so try to keep the room temperature immediately adjacent to your cold room as cool as possible.
By developing some good practices when it comes to restocking your cold room you can help to keep a lid on cold room electricity costs.
Monitor the temperature
It’s crucial that you monitor the temperature in your cold room. Speak to the manufacturer, installation, and servicing company, or consult the user’s manual if you’re in any doubt about the ideal temperature for the products that you want to store.
If your cold room is left set to an incorrect temperature you won’t be using your cold room efficiently. Not only will you waste energy, but you also won’t be storing your products at the optimum temperature, risking a shorter shelf life.
Carry out regular maintenance
One of the principal reasons why cold rooms fail to work efficiently is because regular maintenance is neglected. It can seem like an easy way to cut costs and reduce overheads, particularly if a business encounters cash flow difficulties, but it can be counterproductive.
Regular checks and maintenance by a professional refrigeration technician can spot any problems early on and rectify them before they become more substantial issues. Many problems that can arise with cold rooms are not critical but they will make the cold room less efficient over time.
Inspections will spot if there are small issues such as defective hinges on the doors or problems with the seals that might be allowing warm air to enter inside the cold room. When you discover an issue you should get it repaired as soon as possible. Budgeting for regular maintenance should be a priority for any business that has a cold room on its premises.
Affordable maintenance
At Enviro Chill, our regular air conditioning and refrigeration maintenance agreements begin from as little as £50 a year. Our comprehensive breakdown policy ensures your cold room and other refrigeration equipment runs at maximum efficiency. This helps to keep electricity costs down and extends the life of your cold rooms.
All of our engineers are qualified and experienced, and we invest in our team to ensure they’re always up to date with any changes in legislation.
For more information about our refrigeration maintenance contracts, call our sales staff on 0151 268 1854 or contact us online.