25 Jan Everything You Need to Know About Installing Cold Rooms
Installing cold rooms are vital for restaurants and other businesses in the food industry. The Food Standards Agency has very stringent guidance about refrigerating food and it’s up to you to follow it.
When you’re installing cold rooms, what do you need to look for and what do you need to know about installing them? In this guide, we’re going to take a look at how to install the right cold room for your restaurant and what you need to know before you do so.
Are you ready to find out more? Then read on.
1. How Cold Rooms Work
Cold rooms work on the same principle as refrigerators. There are five parts that are responsible for the cooling:
- The compressor, which compresses the refrigerant gas, which could be CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs, or other gases
- A condenser which takes the compressed gas and cools it into a liquid
- An expansion valve, where this liquid becomes a vapour
- Evaporator coils, where the vapour expands and cools the coils
- Fans that blow air over the cold evaporator coils, cooling the room
While there are a few other technical elements to how the cold room works, this explanation has covered the main parts of the process.
2. What Size Cold Room Do You Need?
When you decide to install a cold room, you should consider the size of the room. This lets you get the most cost-effective cooling solution that you can. One that is too big will not be efficient, which could end up costing you money.
Think about the food that you’ll want to keep cool and how much space it will take up. Then consider how much space you have on your premises. You may want to consider installing it by a loading bay, if you have one, as this means suppliers can deliver food directly to your cold room.
3. What Will You Be Storing In the Cold Room?
Different products require different temperatures, both for government regulations and for ease of use. For instance, storing cheese is very different to storing meat. Plan in advance and think about what you’ll be using the storage room for.
This can help you decide between different styles of cold room and ensure that you get the most use out of your new investment.
4. Consider Scalability
Perfect planning leads to perfect performance: when you’re installing a cold room, you should think about what might happen to your business in the future. For instance, if your business were to grow, would you have enough room in your new cold room for the extra food or would you need to invest in a second cold room?
If expansion is on the cards in the near future, plan for it with an appropriate cold room.
We Can Help
We are experts in cold rooms and other cooling solutions and can help you choose the perfect cold room for your business. For more information on our products, take a look around our site.
If you have any questions or would like to request a phone call, get in touch with us.
