Cold Room & Freezer Load Calculator

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Input Data

Enter your project data

Room length (inside) (m)

Room width (inside) (m)

Room height (inside) (m)

Room temperature (°C)

Ambient temperature (around the room) (°C)

Ambient relative humidity (%)

Ground / floor-side temperature (°C)

Panel insulation thickness (mm)

Usual: chillers 80-100 mm, freezers 120-150 mm (PU).

Insulation conductivity λ (W/(m·K))

PU / PIR 0.022, mineral wool 0.040, EPS 0.035.

Floor

Product

Specific heat above freezing (kJ/(kg·K))

Specific heat below freezing (kJ/(kg·K))

Latent heat of freezing (kJ/kg)

Freezing point (°C)

Respiration heat at 0 °C (W/t)

Daily product intake (kg/day)

Product entering temperature (°C)

Pull-down time (h)

Time to bring the day's intake down to the room temperature.

Stored product mass (kg)

Used for the respiration heat of fruit and vegetables.

Door use

People working inside

Working hours inside per day (h)

Lighting (W/m²)

Lighting hours per day (h)

Evaporator fans and defrost allowance (%)

Safety factor (%)

Compressor run time

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Calculation Results

Calculated instantly from your inputs

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Cold Room Load

The refrigeration unit of a cold room must remove the heat entering through the panels, the warm air coming in at every door opening, the heat of the product brought in each day (and its freezing heat in a freezer), the respiration heat of fresh fruit and vegetables and the heat of people, lights, fans and defrost. The daily total is divided by the compressor run time; the unit then has spare time for defrost and peaks.

Key Points:

Infiltration through the door is often the largest load in busy rooms - use strip curtains and fast doors
Freezing is expensive: the latent heat (about 230-300 kJ/kg) is 5-10 times the sensible cooling
Pull-down time: halving it doubles the product load in kW
Evaporating temperature ≈ room temperature − coil TD (5-7 K for fresh products, keeps the humidity high)
Freezer floors must be insulated and heated against frost heave
Typical chiller rooms: 20-60 W/m³, freezer rooms: 30-80 W/m³ of room volume

Calculation Steps:

Enter all required parameters
Click "Update Calculation"
Review results and analysis

Formula Variables:

U Panel heat transfer coefficient (W/(m²·K))

A Wall / ceiling / floor area (m²)

m Daily product intake (kg/day)

L Latent heat of freezing (kJ/kg)

t_pull Pull-down time (h)

t_run Compressor run time (h/day)