Refrigeration bid comparison tool
Enter up to three refrigeration or cold storage proposals and mark what each one includes. The tool restates every offer as an adjusted comparable cost, shows the scope gaps behind the price difference and flags commercial risks. It never ranks suppliers — that decision needs engineering due diligence.
Normalised comparison
- • Civil works & foundations
- • Electrical supply, MCC & cabling
- • Insulated panels, doors & floor
- • Civil works & foundations
- • 3 scope lines excluded — the quoted price covers a partial project
- • No standby capacity — a single compressor failure stops the facility
- • Warranty of 12 months is below the 24-month industrial norm
- • COP 2.2 implies about 1,145,455 kWh/year — verify the design point
- • Electrical supply excluded — obtain a local price before comparing
All listed scope lines marked as included.
What the normalisation shows
The quoted prices differ by USD 270,000. After adding an allowance for the scope each bidder excluded, the spread is USD 113,000. The lowest quoted offer (Supplier B) excludes 3 of 9 scope lines, so its price describes a smaller project than the others — not necessarily a cheaper one.
Scope allowances are indicative percentages of the highest quoted offer, used only to make partial scopes visible. Replace them with real local prices for civil, electrical and insulation works before any award decision. This tool does not rank suppliers and does not replace engineering due diligence.
Estimates Only: This calculator is provided for general informational purposes only. Results are approximate and may contain errors, omissions, or outdated information. They do not constitute legal, financial, engineering, tax, technical, or professional advice. Users are solely responsible for independently verifying all calculations, specifications, prices, regulations, and requirements with qualified professionals before making any decisions. By using this calculator, you acknowledge that the website owners, operators, and affiliates accept no responsibility or liability for any loss, damage, or decisions resulting from its use.
Bid comparison: buyer questions
- How do I compare refrigeration quotations that include different scopes?
- Build one inclusion matrix, mark every line as included or excluded for each bidder, price the excluded lines with a local estimate, and restate every offer as delivered, installed and commissioned cost. Then add annual energy at one shared operating profile. Only after that adjustment are the numbers comparable.
- What is an adjusted comparable cost?
- The quoted price plus an allowance for every scope line the bidder excluded but the project still needs. It is an indicative planning figure, not a quotation: the allowance should be replaced with a real local price for civil, electrical and insulation works as soon as one is available.
- Why can a EUR 900,000 offer be more expensive than a EUR 1,050,000 offer?
- Because the cheaper offer may exclude civil works, insulated envelope, electrical supply and commissioning, deliver a lower COP that costs tens of thousands a year in electricity, carry a 12-month rather than 36-month warranty, and provide no redundancy. The quoted price is only the part of the project the supplier chose to price.
- Does this tool tell me which supplier to select?
- No, deliberately. It normalises scope, capacity and energy assumptions and flags gaps and risks so that the comparison is like-for-like. Selection still requires engineering due diligence, reference checks, service coverage assessment and contractual review.
- How many quotations should I normalise?
- Three to five qualified offers for projects from roughly USD $250,000 upward. Three establishes a genuine spread; beyond five the engineering effort per bidder tends to fall because the perceived win probability drops.
Related: how to compare cold storage quotations · hidden costs in quotations · refrigeration TCO calculator · before you request quotes
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- How to Write a Cold Storage RFQ
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- All Cold Chain Buyer Guides