The Next Big Thing – How Do Cold Rooms Work?
The Next Big Thing – How Do Cold Rooms Work?
A Cold Room is basically a bigger version of our domestic Refrigerator; you can walk into it. The refrigeration system, generally a split type unit, in which the indoor unit is installed inside the Puf Panel Room & Outdoor unit is installed outside like an AC outdoor unit. That is the reason a Cold Room is most of the times called as a "Walk-In-Chiller / Walk-In-Freezer".
❖ Major Parts of a Cold Room
The Major Components of Cold Rooms as seen
in our earlier Blogs are Puff Panels, Doors, Indoor & Outdoor Units,
Controllers, etc. The panels act as insulation and preserve the temperature
inside the Cold Room. Panels with Cam-Lock & Gaskets are better and easy
for installation for Modular Cold Room as they give proper air tight sealing
and prevent heat loss. In case of bigger Cold Storage (Warehouse Size)
continuous panels (without Cam-lock) can be a cheaper option for the huge
insulation requirement.
In the Refrigeration system - The Compressors are generally Hermetic Reciprocating, Scroll or Semi-Hermetic and the Condenser can be Air-Cooled or Water-Cooled. The selection of size & type of refrigeration system can be decided based on the product to be stored, temperature requirements, size of the Cold Room, site constraints, etc. It is always better to take an expert’s advice in the beginning rather than going by thumb rule & thus avoid paying huge electricity bills later on, for years by choosing a wrong or cheap refrigeration system.
❖ Refrigeration System:
In the Cold Room, the major components of the Refrigeration System are Condensing Unit with a Compressor (Outdoor Unit), Evaporator Unit (Indoor Unit), Expansion Device & a Controller. The Compressor compresses the Refrigerant to High Pressure & High Temperature. Then it passes through the Condenser which is either Air Cooled or Water Cooled. Here the Refrigerant loses its heat and becomes High Pressure & Low Temperature liquid which is then passed through the expansion device where it loses its pressure.
Inside the Cold Room when the refrigerant enters the Evaporator coil and the Evaporator fan is running, at low pressure the Refrigerant starts evaporating. For this it needs energy. It takes the same in the form of Heat from the Room and evaporates. Then it is again passed through the compressor and Condenser, where it loses heat. By repeating this cycle the Room Temp. keeps on dropping and once it reaches the required temperature, the Controller puts off the Refrigeration system.
This is how a Cold Room works. We have to
make a proper choice of the Compressor & other components of the
Refrigeration system based on the Temperature required and the Cooling capacity
as calculated in the Heat Load calculation. So, every Cold Room job in a way,
is different and customized, as a lot of variables play a role in selecting the
different components of the Cold Room.
I hope you have understood the basic
working of the Cold Room. I have tried to explain in a layman’s language to
avoid complicated technical details. Do let me know if you have liked this
blog. Hope this will help you better understand your Cold Room and help you to
operate and maintain it in the most optimum way.
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