Decision Tools

Cold-chain calculators for buyers & engineers

Estimate capex, kWh savings and ROI before talking to suppliers — based on live benchmarks from ColdMatch sourcing projects worldwide.

Cold-chain calculators and planning tools help buyers organize early assumptions about capacity, temperature, energy, equipment and operating requirements. Results remain indicative and require validation by refrigeration specialists, engineers, suppliers and local authorities — a planning result feeds your project requirements and a ColdMatch review before any supplier research begins. Explore the Global B2B Group guide to free project calculators and RFQ tools (English resource).

Plan My Industrial Cold Storage Project

Master planner: product → tonnes → temperature → room size → refrigeration load → power/backup/solar → CAPEX, OPEX, ROI → turnkey RFQ.

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Start Your Cold Room Project

Enter dimensions, product, temperature and throughput once → indicative duty, then carry the same inputs into the cooling-load calculator, warehouse planner and RFQ.

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Engineering & Planning Center

Central hub: calculators grouped by workflow, engineering reference and FAQ for procurement teams.

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Cold Storage Reliability & Redundancy Review

Preliminary single-point-of-failure review: compressors, pumps, standby power, UPS, alarms, spares → redundancy scope and RFQ.

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Cold Storage Growth & Modernization Planner

Current vs target pallets and throughput → new peak load, capacity gap, systems to review and indicative CAPEX band.

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Cold Chain Decision Wizard

8 questions → capacity, system, spec sheet, CAPEX range and pre-filled RFQ.

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Technical Specification Builder

Generate an RFQ-grade technical spec (codes, rooms, refrigeration, controls, evaluation matrix) so supplier quotes are directly comparable.

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Country Compliance Checklist

Auto-flag missing certifications, refrigerant rules, food/pharma licences and import documents for your project country.

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Cold Storage Health Check

Assess an existing facility: temperature stability, energy use, maintenance and compliance gaps, with a prioritised action list.

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RFQ Builder

Brief our sourcing team in 5 steps and get matched with qualified suppliers and financing partners.

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Cold Room Size Calculator

Size a cold room in m³, floor area and pallet capacity from daily throughput and storage days.

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Cooling Capacity Calculator

Convert room volume and temperature class to kW, BTU/hr and tons of refrigeration.

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Refrigeration Load Calculator

Full heat-load breakdown: transmission, product, infiltration and miscellaneous gains.

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Electricity Cost Calculator

Annual kWh and USD spend with peak / demand surcharge and load factor.

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Compressor Sizing

Motor power, COP and displacement for NH₃, CO₂, R-448A/449A and propane.

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Blast Freezer Cost Calculator

Freezing duty in kW, CAPEX range and energy cost for blast tunnels, cells, spirals and plate freezers.

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Fish & Seafood Cold Storage Calculator

Room volume, pallet positions, refrigeration load and CAPEX for frozen fish, shrimp and −60 °C tuna stores.

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Meat Cold Room Calculator

Chilling, holding and freezing rooms for abattoirs: rail metres, pallet positions, duty and CAPEX.

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Fruit & Vegetable Cold Storage ROI

Post-harvest loss avoided, off-season uplift, OPEX, payback and 10-year return for packhouses and CA stores.

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Energy Savings Calculator

Annual kWh and USD savings from upgrading refrigeration plant, controls and insulation.

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Solar Refrigeration Savings

PV + battery savings for cold storage: annual kWh, USD, diesel and CO₂ avoided, plus payback.

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Cold Chain Cost Estimator

Capex range for new cold storage by m³, temperature class, region and turnkey scope.

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Cold Storage Calculator

Capex, load and energy use by temperature, industry and capacity — with suggested system.

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Supermarket Refrigeration Calculator

Cabinet line metres, back-room volume and pack capacity in kW, with CAPEX and annual energy cost for store rollouts.

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Medical Cold Chain Calculator

Vaccine, +2/+8 °C, −20 °C, −40 °C and ULT capacity with N+1 / 2N redundancy, generator sizing and IQ/OQ/PQ scope.

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Warehouse ROI & Payback

Payback period, IRR and 10-year NPV for refrigeration & cold-storage capex.

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RFQ Readiness Score

Score your cold storage brief across the 11 data points suppliers need, see what is missing and how much delay each gap adds.

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Financing Eligibility Calculator

Indicative equity requirement, DSCR and the financing routes lenders typically consider for a cold storage project.

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Financing Calculator

Monthly payment, interest and total cost for project loans, leasing and ECA-backed facilities.

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Cold Room CAPEX Estimator

Indicative build cost for a cold room or freezer store by volume, temperature class, panel spec and region.

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Cold Storage OPEX Estimator

Annual running cost: energy, maintenance, labour, spares and monitoring per pallet and per m³.

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Pharma Cold Chain Readiness Planner

GDP / GMP readiness: mapping, qualification, redundancy, alarms and documentation scope before you go to tender.

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Seafood Cold Chain Planner

Landing volumes to ice, chilling, blast freezing and −25/−60 °C storage capacity with indicative CAPEX.

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Cold Warehouse Automation Planner

Compare manual, semi-automated and ASRS cold warehouses on footprint, labour, energy and CAPEX.

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CO₂ vs Ammonia Comparison

Compare NH₃ and transcritical / cascade CO₂ on CAPEX, efficiency, safety scope and lifetime cost for your duty.

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How these cold-storage tools fit the project

ColdMatch is a supplier-neutral cold-chain and industrial refrigeration project procurement platform. It helps buyers and consultants define project requirements, use relevant calculators, prepare structured RFQs, research manufacturers and organise comparable proposals — project first, suppliers second.

Need financing for the project?

Equipment leasing, ECA-backed loans and trade finance from $100K to $50M.

Explore financing

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.

What each ColdMatch tool does

Each tool below states its purpose, required inputs with units, the outputs it returns, the assumptions it uses, its limitations and the next step. All calculators produce planning estimates based on the values you enter — they are not final refrigeration engineering designs and do not guarantee capacity, temperature, energy consumption or regulatory compliance. A machine-readable version of this list is published at /tools.json.

Cooling Load Calculator

Estimates the refrigeration duty of a cold room from room geometry, temperatures, insulation, product throughput and operating pattern, with optimistic / base / pessimistic scenarios.

Who / when: Project owners, procurement teams and consultants preparing a cold-room specification. Before writing the RFQ, once room size, target temperature and product flow are approximately known.
Inputs: Floor area (m²) and clear height (m); Room temperature and ambient design temperature (°C); Insulation performance (U-value, W/m²K); Daily product throughput (kg/day) and product entering temperature (°C); Door openings per day and pull-down hours.
Returns: Estimated refrigeration duty in kW and TR; Load breakdown (transmission, product, infiltration, internal, defrost); Uncertainty range across optimistic / base / pessimistic scenarios.
Assumptions: Steady-state daily operation with the stated run hours; Default door, lighting, people and forklift loads unless the advanced fields are opened; A safety margin applied on top of the summed loads.
Limitations: Planning estimate only. It is not a final refrigeration engineering design and does not guarantee capacity, temperature, energy consumption or regulatory compliance.
Applies to: chilled food, frozen food, industrial

Next step: Send the load estimate into the RFQ builder

Refrigeration Load Calculator (detailed)

Detailed heat-load breakdown that separates transmission, product, infiltration, internal and defrost loads, with an advanced mode for door, lighting, people, forklift and margin assumptions.

Who / when: Engineers, consultants and technical buyers who want to see each load component. When comparing design assumptions, or when a supplier's quoted duty needs a sanity check.
Inputs: Floor area (m²), clear height (m); Room and ambient temperature (°C), U-value (W/m²K); Product kg/day, entering temperature (°C), specific heat, latent heat for freezing duty; Door area (m²), openings per day, open seconds, infiltration control (%); Lighting (W/m²), people, forklifts, run hours per day, safety margin (%).
Returns: Total duty (kW) with per-component breakdown; Scenario range; Run-hour-adjusted compressor duty.
Assumptions: Freezing point taken as −1.5 °C when latent load applies; Default 18 run hours per day in simple mode.
Limitations: Planning estimate only. It is not a final refrigeration engineering design and does not guarantee capacity, temperature, energy consumption or regulatory compliance.
Applies to: chilled food, frozen food, industrial

Next step: Structure the requirement into an RFQ

Cold Room Size Calculator

Converts daily tonnage, storage days, product type and clear height into gross room volume, floor area and pallet positions.

Who / when: Buyers who know their product flow but not the room they need. At the very start of a project, before any capacity or load estimate.
Inputs: Throughput (tonnes/day); Storage days; Product / density class; Clear height (m).
Returns: Gross volume (m³); Net product volume (m³); Floor area (m²); Approximate Euro-pallet positions.
Assumptions: Product density per class; Circulation and racking allowance applied on top of net product volume.
Limitations: Planning estimate only. It is not a final refrigeration engineering design and does not guarantee capacity, temperature, energy consumption or regulatory compliance.
Applies to: chilled food, frozen food, industrial

Next step: Estimate the cooling duty for that room

Cooling Capacity Calculator

Fast indicative duty from room volume, temperature class and climate, using published W/m³ bands plus a safety factor.

Who / when: Buyers at concept stage who only know volume and temperature class. For a first order-of-magnitude figure before the detailed load calculation.
Inputs: Room volume (m³); Temperature class (chilled, frozen, blast, pharma GDP); Climate; Safety factor (%).
Returns: Cooling capacity in kW, TR and BTU/h; Indicative plant type (condensing unit, multi-compressor pack, NH₃/CO₂ central plant).
Assumptions: Volume-based W/m³ bands: roughly 18 W/m³ chilled, 22 W/m³ pharma GDP, 38 W/m³ frozen, 95 W/m³ blast; Climate multipliers from ~0.9 (cold) to ~1.28 (tropical humid).
Limitations: Volume-based bands ignore product throughput, entering temperature and door traffic, so they can differ substantially from a detailed load calculation. Planning estimate only. It is not a final refrigeration engineering design and does not guarantee capacity, temperature, energy consumption or regulatory compliance.
Applies to: chilled food, frozen food, pharma, industrial

Next step: Refine with the detailed cooling load calculator

Cold Storage Capacity & CAPEX Calculator

Combines capacity, temperature class, industry, climate, operating hours and electricity price into an indicative CAPEX band, refrigeration load and annual energy.

Who / when: Project owners building an internal business case. When a budget figure is needed before approaching manufacturers.
Inputs: Capacity (m³); Temperature class; Industry; Climate; City preset (optional); Operating hours/year; Electricity price (USD/kWh).
Returns: Estimated CAPEX band (USD); Refrigeration load (kW); Annual energy (kWh and USD).
Assumptions: Regional cost bands and W/m³ load bands; Constant electricity price over the year.
Limitations: Planning estimate only. It is not a final refrigeration engineering design and does not guarantee capacity, temperature, energy consumption or regulatory compliance.
Applies to: chilled food, frozen food, pharma, industrial

Next step: Turn the budget into a structured RFQ

Compressor Sizing Calculator

Indicates compressor duty and staging from the required refrigeration load and design conditions.

Who / when: Technical buyers checking a supplier's proposed plant configuration. After a load estimate exists, when comparing plant architectures.
Inputs: Required refrigeration duty (kW); Evaporating and condensing conditions; Redundancy / staging preference.
Returns: Indicative compressor duty and staging; Electrical input at design point.
Assumptions: Design-point performance; part-load behaviour is not modelled.
Limitations: Compressor selection depends on manufacturer performance data at the actual design point. Planning estimate only. It is not a final refrigeration engineering design and does not guarantee capacity, temperature, energy consumption or regulatory compliance.
Applies to: industrial, frozen food, chilled food

Next step: Ask suppliers to quote the same design point

Refrigeration Electricity Cost Calculator

Estimates annual electricity consumption and cost for a refrigeration plant.

Who / when: Buyers and finance teams assessing running cost. When comparing offers that differ in efficiency or duty.
Inputs: Refrigeration duty (kW); System COP / efficiency; Running hours per year; Electricity price (USD/kWh).
Returns: Annual kWh; Annual electricity cost (USD).
Assumptions: Constant load factor and tariff.
Limitations: Real consumption varies with ambient conditions, load profile, defrost and control strategy. No energy saving is guaranteed. Planning estimate only. It is not a final refrigeration engineering design and does not guarantee capacity, temperature, energy consumption or regulatory compliance.
Applies to: any

Next step: Compare lifecycle cost, not just energy

Refrigeration TCO Calculator

Compares competing offers on total cost of ownership: installed CAPEX, energy at the stated COP, maintenance, service life and downtime exposure.

Who / when: Procurement teams evaluating supplier proposals. After technical scope has been normalised and prices are comparable.
Inputs: Offer name, installed CAPEX (USD); Refrigeration duty (kW) and COP at design point; Running hours per year, average load factor (%), electricity price (USD/kWh); Maintenance per year (USD), expected service life (years), expected downtime (days/year) and cost of one downtime day (USD).
Returns: Electricity per year (kWh); Energy cost per year (USD); 5-year TCO per offer (USD).
Assumptions: Constant tariff, load factor and maintenance cost across the horizon.
Limitations: TCO output reflects the assumptions entered; it is not a financial guarantee or an ROI promise.
Applies to: any

Next step: Normalise the technical scope first

Refrigeration Bid Comparison

Normalises supplier bids by adjusting for duty, COP, storage capacity, refrigerant, redundancy, warranty and lead time before comparing price.

Who / when: Buyers holding two or more refrigeration proposals. As soon as proposals arrive — before any commercial negotiation.
Inputs: Supplier / offer reference and quoted total (USD); Refrigeration duty (kW), COP at design point, storage capacity (pallets); Refrigerant, redundancy (N, N+1, …), warranty (months), lead time (weeks); Running hours per year and electricity price (USD/kWh).
Returns: Quoted vs adjusted comparable price; Scope allowance added per offer.
Assumptions: Scope allowances are indicative adjustments, not supplier-agreed prices.
Limitations: Normalisation reveals scope differences; it does not validate supplier performance claims or replace technical review.
Applies to: any

Next step: Get human help interpreting the bids

Cold Room Planner

Turns room dimensions, temperature class, insulation panel thickness, door openings and daily product intake into a full room plan with envelope area, pallet capacity, door count and an indicative cooling duty split by load type.

Who / when: Buyers and consultants defining a cold room before contacting suppliers. First room-definition step, before the detailed cooling-load calculation and the RFQ.
Inputs: Room length, width and clear height (m); Temperature class (+2 °C to −25 °C) and design ambient (30 / 35 / 43 °C); Insulation panel thickness (mm); Door openings per day; Daily product intake (t/day), arrival temperature (°C) and pull-down window (h).
Returns: Internal volume (m³), floor area and insulated panel area (m²); Recommended panel thickness (mm) and indicative pallet positions; Suggested door count; Indicative duty (kW / TR) split into transmission, infiltration, product and internal load.
Assumptions: U-value scaled from reference panel thickness per temperature class; 10% thermal-bridging allowance and 15% overall design margin; ~1.9 m³ per stored pallet at 62% usable volume; ~140 pallet movements per door per day.
Limitations: Planning estimate only. It is not a final refrigeration engineering design and does not guarantee capacity, temperature, energy consumption or regulatory compliance.
Applies to: chilled food, frozen food, pharma, industrial

Next step: Refine the duty in the cooling-load calculator

Cold Warehouse Capacity Planner

Sizes a refrigerated warehouse from product type and throughput — pallets per day and dwell time become required pallet positions, floor area and footprint, then the derived room is run through the shared ColdMatch thermal engine for an indicative refrigeration duty.

Who / when: Buyers, consultants and operations teams scoping a cold warehouse before supplier contact. When throughput and storage duration are known but room size and duty are not.
Inputs: Product / temperature class (+5 °C pharma to −25 °C) and pallet weight (kg); Pallets received per day and average dwell (days); Storage system (block, selective, drive-in, mobile) and clear height (m); Peak allowance (%), growth headroom (%), target working occupancy (%); Design ambient (30 / 35 / 43 °C) and compressor running hours (h/day).
Returns: Required pallet positions, floor area (m²), indicative footprint and volume (m³); Stored product mass (t), storage density (pallets/m²) and dock door count; Design refrigeration duty (kW / TR) with planning band and daily thermal energy (kWh); Load split: transmission, product, infiltration, internal.
Assumptions: Pallet density per m² is scaled from a 10 m clear-height reference for each storage system; Door count from ~140 pallet movements per door per day; infiltration control 0.6 (air curtain / high-speed door); Shared thermal engine with 15% design margin, as used by the cooling-load calculator.
Limitations: Planning estimate only. It is not a final refrigeration engineering design and does not guarantee capacity, temperature, energy consumption or regulatory compliance.
Applies to: chilled food, frozen food, pharma, industrial

Next step: Refine the duty in the cooling-load calculator

Warehouse Capacity Planner

Plans pallet capacity and layout from racking type, levels, operating profile, throughput, dock doors and MHE.

Who / when: Operations and project teams sizing a facility. Alongside the room sizing step, when layout drives capacity.
Inputs: Racking type; Levels; Operating profile; Annual throughput; Dock doors; MHE (reach trucks).
Returns: Pallet positions; Indicative footprint and handling constraints.
Assumptions: Standard pallet dimensions and aisle allowances per racking type.
Limitations: Planning estimate only. It is not a final refrigeration engineering design and does not guarantee capacity, temperature, energy consumption or regulatory compliance.
Applies to: chilled food, frozen food, industrial

Next step: Estimate the refrigeration duty

Pharma Refrigeration Redundancy Planner

Models compressor redundancy, backup generator sizing, hold time without power and inventory exposure for GDP-type cold storage.

Who / when: Pharmaceutical and life-science project owners. When specifying redundancy and backup power in a pharma RFQ.
Inputs: Design refrigeration duty (kW), compressor/unit size (kW), installed cost per unit (USD); System COP at design point, backup power autonomy (hours); Estimated hold time without power (minutes), stored inventory value (USD), share written off in one excursion (%).
Returns: Compressor count; Indicative CAPEX; Electrical input at design; Indicative generator size; Fuel for the stated autonomy; Hold time before excursion.
Assumptions: Uniform unit sizing and design-point efficiency.
Limitations: Redundancy, alarms and backup power must be confirmed by qualified engineers for the specific site. ColdMatch does not perform validation, temperature mapping or regulatory certification.
Applies to: pharma

Next step: Specify pharma requirements in the RFQ

Solar Refrigeration Savings Calculator

Estimates how much of a refrigeration load a PV system could offset and the indicative effect on energy cost.

Who / when: Buyers evaluating on-site generation alongside a cold store. During budgeting, once refrigeration duty and tariff are known.
Inputs: Refrigeration energy demand; PV system size and local yield assumptions; Electricity price (USD/kWh).
Returns: Indicative self-consumption share; Indicative annual energy cost reduction.
Assumptions: Typical yield factors; no storage or grid-export modelling unless stated in the tool.
Limitations: Solar output depends on site, orientation, shading and tariff structure. No savings are guaranteed.
Applies to: any

Next step: Include power and backup in the RFQ

RFQ Readiness Score

Scores how complete a project definition is and shows which missing data points typically delay quotations.

Who / when: Anyone about to approach manufacturers. Immediately before issuing the RFQ.
Inputs: Data points complete (project, temperature, capacity, throughput, site, power, backup, monitoring).
Returns: Readiness score; Likely added delay; List of missing inputs.
Assumptions: Weighting reflects the inputs manufacturers most often request.
Limitations: A high score improves comparability of quotations; it does not guarantee pricing or lead time.
Applies to: any

Next step: Complete the RFQ builder

From estimate to proposals

RFQ Builder
Six-step wizard that turns a project definition into a structured refrigeration RFQ: application, room/zone dimensions, doors, temperature, connected electrical load, backup autonomy, monitoring, quotation format, deadline and required documents.
ColdMatch reviews the project, researches relevant manufacturers and organises the proposals received.
Quotation comparison workflow
Method for normalising technical scope — design conditions, duty, architecture, refrigerant, controls, redundancy, installation and warranty — before comparing price.
Use the bid comparison and TCO calculators once scope is aligned.
Human advisor
Direct contact with the ColdMatch team, including WhatsApp, for buyers and consultants working an active project.
A person continues the project after the RFQ is issued.

ColdMatch is a supplier-neutral industrial cold-chain and refrigeration project procurement platform. It is not a manufacturer, installer, certified engineering firm or refrigerant producer, and a general calculator never demonstrates pharmaceutical compliance.