Cold Room Refurbishment
If you are considering refurbishing or renewing your cold room facilities, now is the time to look at insulation compliance for fire regulations, energy saving products and associated refrigeration plant which has compliant refrigerant gas.
In the past polystyrene has been widely used for both cold room and freezer rooms, however in recent years this has been widely rejected by insurance companies due to the insulation materials supporting combustion should a fire occur. With this type of insulation wood was also a material used to construct the panels, the presence of timber even when covered is prohibited within cold rooms due to hygiene regulations.
With the modern Polyurethane insulation now being used, these are of the self extinguishing type, and therefore do not support combustion, these are recommended by all insurance companies and can be supplied with an LPCB certificate. The modular compartment rooms or multiple compartment areas having different temperatures with either walk through or individual doors for access.
With the advancement of new insulation materials it is possible to achieve better insulation qualities than polystyrene but only utilizing half the approximate thickness therefore more volume can be achieved in the cold room and still maintain a far better insulated room, therefore saving energy.
Modern methods of construction incorporate highly hygienic surfaces, anti slip floors both in stainless steel and aluminium. Modular constructed rooms give the capabilities of easy and quick erection with the option of extending without major de-commissioning of the cold rooms. The panel method can also be used for creating production areas etc whilst maintaining fully hygienic conditions.
When deciding on replacement or refurbishing works careful consideration should be given to the selection of the refrigeration plant. With the advent of CFC and HCFC refrigerant gases being phased out over the next few years any choices of refrigeration plant should incorporate the new refrigerant gases.
The new era of systems available on the market can incorporate energy saving devices which could save you up to 27 % of your power consumption running costs, they also incorporate control systems which will allow you to retrieve all temperature and running data directly to a PC or central computer, the HACCP data is a requirement covered by Environmental Health Authority regulations.
Grants
Before deciding on refurbishment of cold rooms and machinery consideration should be given to possible grants being available through the carbon trust department as there are funds available to offset capital costs if it is proved that the works taking place can achieve savings in energy consumption, the grant is normally based on a percentage of possible energy savings.
For larger establishments with multiple refrigeration systems it is possible to install energy reclaim devices which can achieve for example an abundance of water at approximately 400°C which can be used for washing down areas, pre heated supply to boilers etc. these could also be funded through the grant system.
The modular type rooms can be used for different applications such as food, pharmaceutical drug and controlled waste storage.