Cold storage running-cost estimator
Enter your annual site electricity spend to estimate how much is refrigeration, and what efficient plant, a tighter envelope and better door control could save. Indicative only, not a quote.
Indicative estimate
- Refrigeration electricity / year
- £90,000
- Potential saving from efficient plant
- £13,500
- Indicative solar-offset slice
- £9,000
- 10-year plant saving
- £135,000
Assumptions: refrigeration share of the total electricity bill and an efficiency-improvement range you set above; the solar-offset slice is a conservative ~10% illustration of the refrigeration load (self-consumption is high on a 24/7 load, but the array is sized separately by a solar installer). These are illustrative defaults; your figures depend on product, duty, refrigerant, insulation, door discipline and tariff. This tool does not store any data you enter.
Estimator FAQs
How accurate is this estimator?
It is indicative only. It applies a refrigeration share of your total electricity bill (refrigeration is typically 70 to 80 per cent on a cold-chain site) and an efficiency-improvement range for replacing legacy plant with modern natural-refrigerant plant, a tighter envelope and better door control. Your real figures depend on your product, duty, refrigerant, insulation and door discipline, which an installer measures at survey.
Where does the ~19% efficiency figure come from?
Modern CO2 (R744) transcritical plant has been shown to cut energy against legacy R404A by around 19 per cent, with low-charge ammonia more efficient still at the largest scale. The slider lets you set a conservative-to-optimistic range because the real gain depends on the age and condition of your existing plant.
Can solar reduce this further?
Yes. Because refrigeration runs 24/7, on-site solar self-consumption is unusually high, so a rooftop array offsets a real slice of the load on top of any plant efficiency gain. That array is sized separately by a solar installer against your half-hourly load; this estimator does not size it.
Is this a quote?
No. It is an indicative estimate to help you scope the opportunity. A real quote needs your product, throughput, target temperature and site, all of which an installer assesses as part of a feasibility review.