Cold store energy performance

Considerable energy savings can be achieved in cold stores and cold store users are extremely keen to identify these savings as energy is a major cost in the operation of any sized cold store. Work within the ICE-E (Improving Cold storage Equipment in Europe) project examined methods to reduce energy use in cold stores. Results from 28 cold store audits carried out across Europe are presented. Common faults and issues are discussed and methods to improve performance elaborated. The potential for large energy savings of at minimum 8% and at maximum 72% were identified by optimising usage of stores, repairing current equipment and by retrofitting of energy efficient equipment. Often these improvements had short payback times of less than 1 year.