Reduce Cold Room Running Costs Without Slowing Your Team Down.

For facilities managers and operations teams in the fast food sector, cold rooms are essential to day-to-day operations, but they can also be a significant source of unnecessary refrigeration energy use.

Every time a cold room door opens, cold air escapes and warmer air enters. In busy restaurant environments where staff regularly move between kitchens and refrigerated storage, this continuous air exchange can increase refrigeration demand, contribute to frost and ice build-up and increase the frequency of defrost cycles.

At a high-traffic UK fast food restaurant, a Thermoscreens CS Slimline Air Curtain was installed to improve cold room efficiency while maintaining clear, unrestricted access for staff.

The results included an 8.7% reduction in refrigeration load, an estimated £1,248 annual energy saving and a projected payback period of approximately 16 months.

The Challenge: Reducing Cold Room Running Costs

Cold room doorways are one of the areas where refrigerated environments can lose efficiency.

When doors are opened frequently, warmer ambient air can enter the cold room while conditioned cold air escapes. This forces the refrigeration system to work harder to maintain the required temperature.

For facilities and operations teams, this can contribute to:

• Higher refrigeration energy consumption
• Increased cold room running costs
• More frequent defrost cycles
• Ice and frost build-up around evaporators and doorways
• Additional cleaning and maintenance requirements
• Increased wear on refrigeration equipment

In a busy fast food restaurant, simply keeping the cold room door closed for longer is often unrealistic. Staff need quick, frequent access to ingredients, stock and refrigerated products throughout the working day.

The Limitations of PVC Strip Curtains

PVC strip curtains are commonly used to reduce air exchange across cold room doorways.

However, in busy foodservice environments they can create their own operational problems. Staff must repeatedly move through the strips while carrying products or pushing stock trolleys, potentially slowing movement through the doorway.

They can also obstruct visibility, require regular replacement and create an additional physical barrier within fast-paced kitchen operations.

For this restaurant, the objective was therefore to improve cold room energy efficiency without restricting staff access.

The Solution: CS Slimline Cold Store Air Curtain

A 1m Thermoscreens CS Slimline Air Curtain was installed above the cold room doorway.

The air curtain creates a controlled air barrier across the opening, helping to retain cold air within the refrigerated space while reducing the infiltration of warmer ambient air.

Unlike PVC strip curtains, the doorway remains completely clear, allowing staff, stock trolleys and deliveries to move freely between the kitchen and cold room.

The CS Slimline was particularly suited to the installation because of the limited space available above the doorway.

With a compact 198mm deep profile, the unit is designed for refrigerated applications where headroom is restricted.

By reducing unwanted air exchange, the system helps support more stable cold room temperatures while reducing refrigeration demand, frost formation and defrost requirements.

Cold Room Energy Efficiency Results

Following installation, the performance of the cold room was monitored to assess the impact of the air curtain.

The results demonstrated measurable improvements in refrigeration efficiency:

• 8.7% reduction in refrigeration load
• £1,248 estimated annual energy saving
• 20-minute reduction in defrost time

For facilities managers responsible for multiple restaurant locations, improvements of this type can become particularly significant when replicated across a wider estate.

Improving Cold Room Operations

The benefits extended beyond energy efficiency.

Removing the requirement for PVC strip curtains also helped improve the way staff interacted with the cold room doorway.

Operational benefits included:

• Improved staff access and workflow
• Removal of ongoing PVC strip curtain replacement
• Lower refrigeration operating costs
• Reduced cleaning and maintenance requirements
• Reduced labour associated with defrosting

This is particularly important in high-traffic fast food and quick-service restaurant environments, where cold room doors may be accessed repeatedly throughout the day.

A 16-Month Payback

The CS Slimline installation represented an investment of £1,695.

Based on the estimated annual energy saving of £1,248, the installation was projected to pay for itself in approximately 16 months.

After this point, the reduction in refrigeration demand can continue contributing towards lower operating costs.

How Can Fast Food Restaurants Improve Cold Room Efficiency?

For facilities managers reviewing refrigeration and energy performance, cold room doorways are an important area to consider.

Reducing uncontrolled air exchange can help refrigeration equipment maintain temperature more efficiently without requiring staff to constantly open and close additional physical barriers.

Cold store air curtains can be particularly useful where there is:

• High-frequency cold room access
• Significant staff movement
• Regular trolley or stock movement
• Existing PVC strip curtains
• Ice or frost around doorways
• Frequent refrigeration defrost cycles
• Limited space above the cold room entrance

Conclusion

Improving cold room energy efficiency does not necessarily require major changes to refrigeration equipment.

In this fast food restaurant application, improving climate separation at the doorway resulted in an 8.7% reduction in refrigeration load, estimated annual savings of £1,248 and a projected payback period of around 16 months.

For facilities managers, energy managers and operations teams responsible for restaurants, commercial kitchens or wider fast food estates, reducing air exchange at frequently used cold room doorways can provide a practical opportunity to improve refrigeration efficiency while maintaining fast, unrestricted staff access.