Before you request quotes for an industrial refrigeration project

1. Facility and design conditions

Ambient design conditions change plant sizing more than almost any other input. A condenser sized for 32 °C behaves very differently at 45 °C, and a bidder who assumes the wrong one looks cheapest.

• Country, city and site altitude
• Summer design dry-bulb and wet-bulb temperature
• New build, extension or retrofit into an existing envelope
• Available footprint, clear height and plant room location
• Site access, crane availability and delivery constraints

2. Application and product

The product decides hygiene class, airflow, humidity control, materials and defrost strategy long before it decides brand.

• Food, pharmaceutical, seafood, meat, dairy, produce, logistics or processing
• Chilled, frozen or multi-temperature zones
• Product packaging format and pallet configuration
• Hygiene, corrosion and washdown requirements
• Any regulatory or customer audit regime the facility must satisfy

3. Capacity and throughput

Storage volume alone never sizes a plant. Daily movement and pull-down expectations often drive more duty than the static heat load.

• Pallet positions or tonnes stored, and m³ net
• Daily inbound and outbound tonnage
• Pull-down requirement: incoming temperature to target, within how many hours
• Peak seasonal factor versus average day
• Planned expansion phases and whether the plant must be extendable

4. Temperatures and refrigeration duty

Four temperature points and one duty figure remove most of the ambiguity between competing proposals.

• Incoming product temperature
• Storage temperature and permitted tolerance
• Freezing or blast temperature, where applicable
• Process temperatures for any production stage
• Refrigeration duty in kW at the stated design ambient, or the load data allowing a bidder to state it

5. Refrigeration architecture and redundancy

State preferences and restrictions rather than a brand. This keeps the field open while making bids comparable.

• Refrigerant preference or restriction: NH3, CO2, HFO, HFC blends
• Compressor strategy: screw, reciprocating, number of steps, part-load behaviour
• Redundancy expectation: N, N+1, or accepted downtime window
• Evaporator, condenser and heat-rejection strategy (air-cooled, evaporative, adiabatic)
• Controls, monitoring, alarming and remote access scope

6. Utilities and site services

Utility limits reject otherwise excellent designs. Publish them in the enquiry, not after award.

• Available electrical capacity, voltage and frequency
• Water availability and quality for evaporative rejection
• Backup power: existing generator, required autonomy, or none
• Grid stability and typical outage profile
• Heat recovery opportunities and any process heat demand

7. Commercial frame

Commercial data is not confidential leverage — withholding it mostly produces proposals aimed at the wrong project.

• Indicative budget band and approval status
• Required delivery, installation and commissioning dates
• Whether independent financing pathways will be explored
• Warranty length and service response expectations
• Spare-part strategy and training requirements

Best for

Commercial and industrial cold chain projects, typically from USD 250,000 upward: cold rooms, refrigerated warehouses, blast freezers, processing plant refrigeration and distribution hubs.

Not a fit: domestic refrigerators, household or office air conditioning, small repair call-outs, or spare-parts-only enquiries.

Typical cold chain project types

• Fruit, vegetable and horticulture cold storage with pre-cooling
• Meat, poultry and fish chilling plus blast freezing
• Dairy and beverage process cooling
• Pharma and vaccine GDP cold chain (2–8 °C, −20 °C, −70 °C)
• Refrigerated warehouses, 3PL hubs and mobile cold rooms

Cold room vs refrigerated warehouse

A cold room is a single insulated chamber, usually under ~500 m³, serving one process or storage step. A refrigerated warehouse is a multi-zone facility with racking, docks, air locks and a central refrigeration plant, sized by pallet positions and daily throughput rather than by room volume.

What affects project cost

• Storage volume, pallet positions and daily throughput
• Target temperature and ambient design conditions
• Refrigerant choice (NH₃, CO₂, HFC) and plant redundancy
• Panel thickness, doors, air locks and civil works
• Backup power, solar, freight, duties and commissioning

Temperature range checklist

• +12 to +16 °C — bananas, potatoes, curing
• +2 to +8 °C — pharma GDP, dairy, fresh produce
• 0 to +4 °C — meat, fish and chilled distribution
• −18 to −25 °C — frozen storage
• −35 to −40 °C — blast freezing and IQF

RFQ checklist

• Product, temperature and daily intake
• Room dimensions or required pallet positions
• Site location, ambient conditions and power supply
• Backup autonomy and redundancy level
• Budget range, timeline and scope exclusions

Build your RFQ →

Project type cluster

Agriculture and horticulture cold storage

Pre-cooling plus storage for fruit, vegetables and flowers, usually +2 to +12 °C with high humidity control and fast pull-down after harvest. Sized by daily intake in tonnes, not only by room volume.

Meat, poultry and fish cold storage

Chilling at 0 to +4 °C combined with blast freezing at −35 to −40 °C and frozen holding at −18 to −25 °C. Hygienic panels, drainage and separate dirty/clean flows are part of scope.

Pharmaceutical and API cold storage

GDP-compliant 2–8 °C rooms, −20 °C and, for some active pharmaceutical ingredients and biologics, −70 °C. Requires mapping, IQ/OQ/PQ, N+1 refrigeration, backup power and alarm escalation.

Refrigerated warehouse and 3PL distribution

Multi-zone facilities sized by pallet positions, dock doors and daily throughput. Typical scope covers racking, air locks, dock levellers, a central plant and an energy strategy.

Food processing plant refrigeration

Process cooling, chillers, spiral or tunnel freezers and glycol loops integrated with production lines. Usually specified alongside ISO 22000 and HACCP food safety requirements.

Mobile and containerised cold rooms

Plug-and-play 20 ft or 40 ft refrigerated units for seasonal peaks, remote sites and temporary capacity, typically −25 to +8 °C with optional solar or generator support.