Cold Room Case Study: From Cooling Requirement to a Comparable RFQ
This cold room case study follows one representative frozen storage project from requirement to quotation. The buyer defined the product, temperature band, pallet capacity and daily throughput, calculated the cooling load and annual electricity cost with the ColdMatch calculators, compared refrigeration technologies against the duty, then issued a single structured cold room RFQ so every supplier priced the same scope. The figures are indicative planning values, not a quotation or a record of a delivered installation.
Anonymised and representative. This is a planning walk-through built with the free calculators on this site, not a delivered project, a client reference or evidence of installed capacity, energy use or cost.
The brief
| Product | Frozen meat and seafood, palletised, arriving already frozen at −18 °C |
|---|---|
| Temperature band | −22 °C room, ±2 K tolerance, no blast freezing in scope |
| Room | 30 × 20 × 10 m clear — 6,000 m³ usable volume |
| Capacity target | ≈ 1,200 pallet positions at peak, drive-in and selective racking mix |
| Throughput | 12 t/day in and out, two shifts, roughly 45 door openings per day |
| Climate | Hot climate, ≈ 40 °C design ambient, high humidity in the shoulder season |
| Envelope | 150 mm PIR panels, insulated floor with under-floor heating, rapid-roll doors with airlock |
| Utilities | Grid supply with regular short outages; standby generator required for the plant |
The numbers that drove every decision
Transmission, infiltration, product load and internal loads with a safety margin, from the capacity calculator
From usable volume, clear height and the racking mix — checked against the peak month, not the average
Duty, run hours, climate and defrost strategy; ≈ 67,000 per year at a 0.14/kWh tariff
The cost calculator returns an installed range and a cost per m³ for this temperature class and specification
Step 1 — Define the requirement before contacting anyone
The buyer started with product, temperature band, capacity and throughput, not with a supplier search. Writing those down exposed the first real decision: the store holds already-frozen product, so there is no freezing duty in scope — a distinction that changes the plant size, the evaporator selection and the price by a wide margin, and one that several suppliers would otherwise have assumed differently.
Step 2 — Calculate the load, then the energy cost
With dimensions, insulation, climate, door type and traffic entered, the capacity calculator produced an indicative duty of about 96 kW and an annual electricity estimate of roughly 480,000 kWh. That second number changed the conversation: over a twenty-year life it dwarfs the difference between the cheapest and the most expensive quotation received, so envelope thickness, door protection and defrost strategy were locked before technology was discussed.
Step 3 — Budget the range before any price arrives
The cold room cost calculator gave an indicative installed range and a cost per m³ for this temperature class, specification and region. The point is not accuracy to the last unit — it is having a defensible band before the first quotation lands, so an unusually low price is read as a scope gap rather than a bargain.
Step 4 — Match the technology to the duty
At roughly 96 kW in a hot climate with a standby-power constraint, several architectures remained viable: a packaged HFC/HFO plant, a CO₂ system, or a small ammonia plant with a secondary glycol loop. Each was assessed against machinery-room requirements, maintenance skills available locally, refrigerant regulation and expected running cost — not against a claim that one technology is universally best.
Step 5 — Work through the readiness checklist
Before the RFQ was written, the buyer completed the project-readiness checklist below. Two gaps surfaced: the available electrical capacity had never been confirmed against the plant's starting current, and nobody had decided whether the standby generator covers the whole plant or only the evaporator fans and controls. Both would have produced non-comparable quotations.
Step 6 — Issue one structured RFQ
All of it went into a single RFQ: duty with its assumptions, capacity, envelope specification, door and traffic detail, refrigerant constraints, redundancy and standby requirement, controls and monitoring, commissioning scope, spares and the expected energy consumption at the stated duty. Suppliers were asked to price inclusions and exclusions on the same lines, so the comparison was about value rather than interpretation.
Step 7 — Compare complete solutions, then talk to suppliers
Quotations were normalised into one sheet: installed scope, exclusions, expected consumption at the stated duty, spares, warranty, commissioning and service response. Only at that point did supplier selection become a decision rather than a guess — which is the entire argument for starting with the cooling requirement.
Cold storage project-readiness checklist
Target temperature alone cannot size a refrigeration plant. Confirm the items below before you approach any supplier — they are the same inputs every serious quotation is built on, and gaps here are the main reason first quotations are not comparable.
Product and duty
- Product type, packaging and whether food or pharma handling rules apply
- Required temperature range, and whether the room stores already-cold product or has to pull it down
- Pull-down or freezing time you must achieve, in hours
- Seasonality: peak month versus average month
Capacity and traffic
- Storage volume in m³, pallet positions at peak, and pallet dimensions and weight
- Daily throughput in and out, in pallets or tonnes
- Inbound and outbound loading pattern, dock count and door openings per day
- Racking type and required clear height
Site and building
- Location, ambient design temperature and humidity
- New build, extension or retrofit into an existing envelope
- Insulation thickness, fire class and floor construction, including under-floor heating for freezers
- Door types: sliding, sectional, high-speed, air curtains and dock seals
Refrigeration and energy
- Refrigeration technology assumption: ammonia, CO₂, HFC/HFO or cascade — and why
- Available electrical supply, voltage and frequency, plus confirmed spare capacity
- Generator, solar or battery backup requirement and permitted downtime
- Expected energy tariff and whether energy cost is a decision criterion
Operation and compliance
- Monitoring, alarm and data-logging requirements, and who responds out of hours
- Redundancy expectation, such as N+1 on compressors or evaporators
- Maintenance capability on site or by contract
- Permits, internal approvals, tender rules and the decision-maker for sign-off
Commercial frame
- Expected total project value and currency
- Timeline, including any fixed operational start date
- Whether a financing pathway needs to be explored in parallel
- Which of the above are confirmed facts, which are assumptions, and which still need technical confirmation
Acceptance-test criteria to state up front
- Temperature uniformity across the room at defined measurement points
- Pull-down or freezing time from a stated entry temperature to the setpoint
- Energy use at a defined load and ambient condition
- Alarm behaviour: what triggers, to whom, and how fast
- Backup performance: transfer time and how long the room holds temperature
- Operational availability and the response time expected under the service agreement
Next steps: prepare a cold storage RFQ, estimate cold room size, run a refrigeration load pre-check, review cold room cost factors, or read how to prepare a cold storage RFQ.
Run your own numbers
The calculators used in this case study are free and need no sign-up. Start with the load, then the cost, then the running cost — the same order the buyer above used.
Prepare a cold storage RFQ
Once the checklist above is complete, turn it into one structured RFQ so every supplier prices the same scope. David and the human team review qualifying projects — generally from USD 250,000 expected total project value — before any supplier introduction. ColdMatch is not a manufacturer, contractor, lender or automatic marketplace.
ColdMatch helps buyers prepare cold chain RFQs and source suitable suppliers.
Directory pages are for discovery and SEO. ColdMatch is not an automatic marketplace and does not directly connect buyers with refrigeration manufacturers — supplier matching and introductions are managed manually by ColdMatch.
- 1. You submit a cold room, cold storage, industrial refrigeration, pharma cold chain, food logistics or mobile cold room request.
- 2. ColdMatch reviews your request and prepares the project brief — temperature range, product type, country, size, budget and operational needs.
- 3. Only after the brief is understood, ColdMatch searches for suitable suppliers.
- 4. David continues with you personally and introduces suppliers only when relevant.
Supplier and manufacturer listings are provided for research, transparency and discovery only. ColdMatch Group does not provide automatic buyer-supplier introductions. Every cold chain project request is reviewed manually by David / ColdMatch Group, and supplier introductions are made only after internal approval.
Cold room case study — questions buyers ask
How ColdMatch Group works — independent B2B procurement and sourcing platform — ColdMatch Group is an independent B2B procurement and sourcing platform for industrial refrigeration, cold storage and cold-chain projects from USD $250K+, connecting buyers with qualified third-party suppliers, EPC contractors and independent financing providers.
Supplier and manufacturer listings are provided for research, transparency and discovery only. ColdMatch Group does not provide automatic buyer-supplier introductions. Every cold chain project request is reviewed manually by David / ColdMatch Group, and supplier introductions are made only after internal approval.