Cooling load calculation

In order to optimally cool your crops, it’s useful to calculate the right cooling capacity for your storage cell. Therefore, identify when and how long you want to store your product, how quickly the temperature needs to drop and under what conditions you want to store your product for a certain period of time. We use that data for a cooling load calculation.

Why is it important to perform a cold load calculation?

The more thought you give to the capacity of your cooling system, the more precise your installation can be made. This has the advantage that your products do not get too much and not too little cooling. Excessive cooling can cause your product to dry out. You may also find that your energy consumption is unnecessarily high.

What components are included in a cooling load calculation?

When calculating the cooling load, we include all factors that affect the amount of cooling your products need. For example:

• Type of crop and variety
• Temperatures inside and outside the storage
• Available hours of the refrigeration system
• The speed at which your produce needs to be cooled
• Respiratory heat of your produce
• Insulation of the building and leakage loss
• Loss of cold when opening the doors in a cell for inspection or to unload a section of produce
• Production of heat by other technology you have running in the storage (e.g. lights, ventilation or defrosting)

Depending on these factors, the cooling capacity is between 60 – 140 watts per tonne of stored produce.

Wondering if your storage has the right cooling capacity?

We would be happy to make an accurate cold load calculation for your storage. Feel free to contact us for no-obligation advice.