Energy Saving Equipment 31 Decisions, decisions – why upgrade?


Andy Hudspith of ISD Solutions, a specialist in modular cold stores, discusses the benefits of walk-in chilled and frozen storage over standalone options and explains when it’s appropriate to upgrade.


OR HOTELS, CATERERS and food producers, professional chilled and frozen storage is crucial to food quality and an efficient, well managed and productive working environment. However, there are numerous issues to weigh up when selecting the right equipment for your needs, from important food hygiene and public safety regulations, to practical matters such as ease of access, capacity, work flow planning and increasingly, energy efficiency. Commercial uprights and cabinets provide a perfect solution in many situations. Certainly if your operation is relatively small or you are starting out they can be ideal. But if you are expanding, looking to upgrade or need to extend your food storage facilities, then ranks of cabinets may not be practical. So what are the factors you need to consider?


F Volume and access


The volume of stock that is chilled or frozen and the frequency, at which staff need to access these, is clearly important and this will have a direct bearing on whether you need a cabinet or walk-in design, or a combination of these. In a walk-in environment, stock is displayed on floor to ceiling shelves and easily accessible. Trolleys can be wheeled in and out and unloaded directly to racks and shelving. By contrast, in a cabinet stock can get buried and forgotten, making it more likely to exceed optimal storage times. It can be harder it is to access stock towards the rear or bottom of the cabinet and you might even be searching multiple cabinets before you find what you need. A consequence is that staff will spend more time searching for stock they need, even removing stock to access produce buried or hidden, and then replacing stock once they have found what they are looking for. This is wasteful on resources and time in busy environments.


Wastage


Stock rotation to minimise wastage, a vital activity, may also suffer for the same reasons. The function will take longer to perform and may not be carried out as frequently as it should be. There are health and safety implications here. The ease of access and instant stock visibility afforded by a walk-in freezer, laid out with floor to ceiling shelving, significantly reduces these issues. It is easier to carry out stock checks without removing anything from the freezer and cleaning is also easier, with minimal disturbance.


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Energy efficiency


Another issue to consider is energy consumption. This is a big issue for the food and hospitality sector and refrigeration is one of the biggest electrical consumers. Constant in and out access to freezers will cause pumps and fans to work harder.


The benefit of a walk-in freezer is a single access door with self-closing hinges. It means you are not exposing the whole contents to ambient temperatures each time you fetch something from storage and long term running costs will be lower. Price, of course, is a factor but gone are the days when a walk-in freezer or chiller was an expensive option. Indeed, volume for volume a walk-in solution can be as much as 50% less than a conventional commercial freezer. If that comes as a surprise, it is due partly to the use of modern composite insulated panels, the same technology used for state-of-the-art frozen food warehouses.


A quality modular coldroom with a storage volume of 5,390 litres, for example, will cost around £4,000. By comparison an equivalent quality 1,200 litre commercial upright could be as much as £1,800. You would need five of these to deliver the same volume and take up more floor space in the process and power consumption and running costs would be significantly less with the modular solution.


Choices


So there are practical advantages for walk- in cold storage and, with the pressure to maximise available kitchen space, they are becoming increasingly popular. Of course, these facilities are business critical, so quality, durability and reliability are important watch words. A reputable supplier should be able to offer advice in terms of the features you need and, if an off the shelf solution is not readily available, provide a bespoke design and manufacturing service. This is particularly useful if available space is awkward or difficult to utilise.


Systems should meet international hygiene standards and HACCP guidelines and include easy clean food safe finishes. Ease of installation and whether a specialist fitter is needed might also be important to you. Off the peg ISD cold rooms, complete with floor, ceiling, walls and refrigeration plant, are available in a range of popular sizes for example, and can be assembled in three hours, using fast fit camlock fixings and integrated gaskets. The use of 100mm thick composite insulation panels will also ensure the best thermal performance and integrated plant will give precise temperature control from +8°C to -25°C. Other aspects including lighting, internal shelving, floor finishes, control panels, temperature alarms and door locks should also be supplied as standard. www.isd-modularcoldrooms.co.uk


ACR News August 2015


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