Meridian Cold Chain

Cold room sizing calculator

Work out the cold room you need, in about two minutes.

Your room

Length, width and height. Any size, not only standard ones.

degrees C

kg arriving each day

Powering it with solar

the battery must carry

affects inverter size

Refrigeration capacity required
16.5kW
56,457 BTU/hr · 4.7 tons refrigeration
Indicative budget
₦46.7m to ₦67.2m

Indicative only, from typical market rates for a room of this size. A firm price follows the site survey.

Room volume
72.5 m³
Holds about
21,747 kg
Insulation
100mm panel
Daily heat load
298 kWh
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Where the load comes from
Cooling and freezing the product188.4 kWh · 73%
Heat through walls and ceiling23.4 kWh · 9%
Air infiltration through the door17.3 kWh · 7%
Evaporator fans14.3 kWh · 6%
Defrost7.1 kWh · 3%
Heat through floor5.2 kWh · 2%
People working in the room2.6 kWh · 1%
Lighting0.6 kWh · 0%

Calculated by the five component method in ASHRAE Handbook, Refrigeration, chapter 24, with a 15 percent design margin over 18 running hours.

Power required to run it
10.2kW electrical
183 kWh per day · 66,893 kWh per year

At -18°C against a 35°C ambient the plant runs at a COP of 1.63, so each kW of cooling costs about 0.62 kW of electricity.

Solar system to run it · Nigeria, South West (Lagos, Ibadan)
Solar array
53.4 kWp
83 × 650 W panels
Roof area
257 m²
Battery
115 kWh
92 kWh usable
Inverter
13 kW
36 kW starting surge
  • At -18°C the plant achieves a COP of only 1.63, so every kilowatt of cooling costs about 0.62 kW of electricity. Freezing is expensive to run, which is what makes solar worth costing properly.
  • Sized for a direct on line compressor, so the inverter must survive a 36 kW starting surge. A soft starter would bring that down to about 18 kW and can meaningfully reduce the inverter you need to buy.