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For commercial and industrial refrigeration projects (cold rooms, cold stores, process cooling) — not household fridges, home freezers or appliance repair. Results are planning estimates, not engineering design or safety advice; a qualified refrigeration engineer must confirm sizing before purchase.
Decide between building a new cold storage facility and acquiring/retrofitting an existing one. Model CAPEX, time-to-revenue, risk and expansion optionality — with Optimistic / Base / Pessimistic scenarios.
Enter only amounts excluded from CAPEX or retrofit. Blank = excluded, not a verified zero. No grant or automatic surcharge; these amounts are added after the scenario multiplier.
Entered omitted-cost total: Build new USD 0; Buy + retrofit USD 0
Baseline comparison: total CAPEX only. No value is assigned to finishing earlier unless you enter one below.
Enter your own estimate of what each month of earlier operation is worth to your business (e.g. net margin or avoided third-party storage cost). Leave blank to exclude. ColdMatch does not supply a default and this is not a market figure.
No schedule value entered — results above compare CAPEX only.
Building your own cold store makes financial sense when you need stable, long-term capacity: owned facilities typically cost USD 900–2,000 per m³ to build but only USD 25–60 per pallet per month to operate, versus USD 15–35 per pallet per month for 3PL rental with no CAPEX. As a rule of thumb, above roughly 70–80% sustained utilisation over 5+ years, owning beats renting; below that, 3PL is cheaper and far more flexible.
When utilisation is seasonal or below about 70%, or when the horizon is under five years. You pay only for the pallets you use and avoid CAPEX, permits and maintenance.
Roughly USD 900–1,400 per m³ for chilled and USD 1,300–2,000 per m³ for frozen, including envelope, refrigeration, racking and installation. Land, power connection and permits are extra.
Grid connection upgrades, backup power, commissioning, spare parts stock, maintenance contracts, and 1.5–3% of CAPEX per year in ongoing servicing.
Your size, cost and load inputs are copied into the quote form, so you don't type them twice. Nothing is sent until you review and submit.
Free for buyers, no obligation. These figures are estimates, not quotes — our team reviews your request and contacts suitable suppliers on your behalf.
Send your requirements. A ColdMatch specialist reviews every request, prepares a brief and introduces suitable suppliers — free for buyers.
Money-only comparison; enter facility size in your preferred units on other calculators.
Default figures entered by the user.
Buying wins if 12 months of operation earn more than USD 0.3M.
Illustrative planning result only. Confirm the final design, duty, equipment selection and performance with a qualified refrigeration engineer and supplier quotation.
Follows the ColdMatch calculation standard: method, worked example, limitations and imperial units.
