There are numerous reasons to stock up on various food items. Some of these reasons are more common than others, but all of them are very important to know.

One of the main reasons for food storage is emergency situations such as power outages, severe storms; including hurricanes, tornado threats and flooding. There is the survivalist type who believe in stocking up for other purposes. These individuals like keeping a good stock of food at all times.

Farmers also stock up on their crops and other non-perishables, canned and frozen foods. Maybe you have a large family, and you like being stocked up on tour non-perishables, canned foods and freezer items. These are just a few examples of people who stock up on food. Whatever your reason may be it is important to know the urgency of the correct way to store food whether it is in the freezer or on a shelf.

With all foods there are certain ways you have to store and prepare them.

Canned foods

Canned foods can last years after being purchased and are essentially the easiest foods to store besides boxed goods. Foods like canned vegetables, fruit, meats, beans and other such foods can be stored for very long periods of time. However the life of these foods also depends upon the conditions that they are stored under. Lighting, temperature and humidity canal of an impact on storage life.

Boxed goods

Most of all boxed goods that you can buy can normally be stored for very long periods of times as well. Essentially these foods don’t ruin and will last quite a few years if stored properly. However storage conditions also pertain to boxed and bagged goods as well.

Meat and dairy products: These are the most quickly ruining foods and must be stored for only certain lengths of time and the temperature is essential in storing these foods. Beef can be stored up to six months, pork products can be stored up to twelve months and lamb, veal, poultry and venison can be stored between 8-12 months. A crucial factor in storing meat is making sure there are no tears in packaging to avoid freezer burn.

Some products like rice, instant potatoes and pasta can last for 30 plus years. There are other food products that can last as long or almost as long. Check with your FDA website for a complete list of foods that can be stored for long periods of time. If you are storing foods for this long, it is a good idea to occasionally rotate the stock out with your month or three month supply of foods to keep them fresher.

Living comfortable and paying the price

CM- Coolroom and freezer energy audits are customary. If you own a restaurant or other business or home that has a coolroom or freezers then you will want to pay close attention.

Performing an energy saving audit on your coolrooms and freezers will save you big-time!

Home energy saving audits

Having a general home or business location energy saving audit is smart too. If you running the heater in the winter and a lot of air in the summer, then living comfortable may come at a big cost, especially if you have energy leaks and repair issues that are energy-related.

What is a general home energy saving audit?

Just like auditing your coolrooms and freezers, homes and entire businesses need energy assessments.

Home energy audits = energy assessments, and they are all the same. How do you use your energy? Is your house losing energy? If so you are definitely losing hard earned cash. Can your issues or problems with energy leaks or other energy issues found in your audit be easily fixed? If so, you will be calling on the energy auditor soon.

Doing your own energy audit

Living comfortable

Of course you want to be comfortable. You want to be cozy cuddly warm in the chilliest winter times, and easy breezy cool in the hot, steamy summer. But living comfortable can be costly if you have leaks or other issues that cause your energy efficiency level to drop.

If you want to live comfortable then keep your savings in tact by not spending unnecessarily on big energy costs that could have been avoided. A small repair is less costly than a huge energy bill.

Best advice:

Get a coolroom, freezer(s), home and or business energy audit now!

Do you want to save your money or spend it?

Energy saving tips overview

Hello there, glad you could join us today. This article is all about energy saving tips for coolrooms and walk-in freezers. I suppose you can tell by the title that you’re about to save a good deal of cash.

Energy saving tips are essential these days. Energy doesn’t come free unless you’re harboring solar power and the fact is, solar power is expensive to set up. Electric prices are soaring. In fact, the cost of energy is so high that it’s driving homeowners to share dwelling and expenses, and business owners out of business.

For this reason we need all the energy saving tips we can get. Particularly specific to coolrooms and walk-in freezer here are some valuable tips you should put to use right away.

How can your beloved business prosper?

A lot of business owners, especially restaurants have commercial refrigeration. A business prospers by saving every penny possible. And, a good business person doesn’t spend money unnecessarily. A big difference between people that have money saved and those that don’t is that the person who saves doesn’t spend. Sounds simple right? Your beloved business will prosper if you’re careful about purchasing, or not purchasing. A smart person knows how to find the best possible quality products and equipment at the best possible prices.

What about the rest of your business?

There is a lot more than just energy-related savings tips for coolrooms and freezers. What about the building that houses the freezers and coolrooms?

Small changes

Small changes, in anything, can make the biggest difference when adding them up. If you can’t afford large fixes then do the small things that can help keep your home energy efficient.

Insulation anyone? Are your floors, up your walls and into the ceiling overly insulated? If so, you’re good. The best insulation is never going to cost you. In the end, having proper insulation will save you and in a big way.

Your home is your castle – Your business is your baby!

Businesses aren’t the only ones that own coolrooms and freezers, homeowners do too! Everyone knows the phrase, “Your home is your castle.” Never a better phrase was penned, it’s true…our homes are our castles and we do everything in our power to keep them maintained and energy efficient. If you own a business with coolrooms and freezers then it’s even more important to keep them energy efficient by doing regular energy saving audits.

“Your business is your baby?” You haven’t heard? I know why you haven’t heard. I just made it up, but it’s also very true. Your business represents a major investment, just like a child. Have a good day and thank you for stopping by.

Of course, professional cleaning and maintenance is vital to keeping your commercial freezer working properly, but, you can do a few things to help your refrigeration unit to work right longer. The trick to self analysis of your refrigerator is knowing what to look for and when to call for help. Some obvious signals that your freezer is not working right are thawed items stored in your freezer. Finding water under your freezer or smelling something like formaldehyde are other signals that your freezer needs to be checked, repaired, or get a professional maintenance fix up which might be your best first reaction if you see any of these above mentioned signs of freezer problems. These self checks on your refrigerator might be all that you need to do to repair your freezer yourself.

The first important part of your refrigeration is the condenser. The condenser is a coil that is located on the bottom or behind the refrigerator. If the condenser coil needs to be checked visually, there is usually a screw located on its cover that can be easily taken out. Another important safety check on your refrigerator is to make sure that your refrigerator’s door gaskets are sealing properly. If air is seeping inside your refrigerator, you are at risk of losing your refrigerator. Refrigerator door gaskets can be cleaned with soft soapy water.

If your refrigerator has a drain line connected, check to see that the drain ends are clean. A straw can be inserted into the end of a drain line to clear up whatever condensation that could block your refrigerator water line connection. These precautionary measures to keep your refrigerator working better and longer should be supplemented with professional maintenance. A professional cleaning of your refrigerator could include the use of pressure cleaning of your refrigerator’s condenser, clearing out of all drains connected to coils going to your refrigerator, checking the temperature of your refrigerator, adjusting the refrigerator’s cycles, cleaning and checking the refrigerator door gaskets, oiling refrigerator motor and bearings if oil stations are used on your refrigerator, making an outside check with another thermometer to verify that the refrigerator’s thermometer is working properly, checking the refrigerator’s wiring system, deciding if the insulation in the refrigerator is sufficient to keep the inside at the temperature set and the outside at room temperature, and other checks on wiring and refrigeration of stored items.

The most mentioned pro of PVC curtains is the low cost and maintenance of the product. The biggest con on the other hand is the cheap look or feel of having plastic rather than a fabric covering.

The thing is PVC does have the strongest advantage. There are a wide variety of types and they are used by many professional businesses as well as in domestic settings. They can even be used outside. PVC curtains work great for the use in coolrooms, but they are most seen in restaurants over freezer and cooler doors to maintain temperature or on backdoors to eliminate pests.

One con is the tearing possibility, but if you invest in the thicker PVC curtains that won’t be likely. These are durable materials if you choose according to your actual needs and amount of traffic that will be going through them.

Another con is PVC curtains are something that in many businesses is nonnegotiable. They are required by health departments, and they have to be fully operational. In other words, if one breaks then it has to be immediately repaired, and until it is your coolroom is not meeting operational health standards. This leaves little room for flexibility.

On the upside, businesses with PVC curtains are paying less for pest control, and they see less food wasted due to pest prevention and temperature control. They are also making more overhead profits because of their good standing with the health departments. These re guaranteed wins for any business!

PVC curtains help to prevent bacteria and reduce the possibility for mood. The list goes on and on. Again, they have the strongest advantage, and no other material can truly compete against PVC curtains when it comes to meeting needs and demands.
Finally, PVC curtains are budget friendly, heavy duty and ready to install. With C&M repairs are easy and affordable. In the long run and with all things considered the pros of PVC curtains for coolrooms are much more prominent than the cons.

These are options that are more than adequate in several industries. You can go with a clear PVC curtain or customize the look of your PVC curtains for your coolroom through C & M’s professional coolroom services and affordable pricing. Your needs and budget are considered to get you the best PVC curtains to suit your needs and also to meet the health standards in your area.

Since the field is not suffering like many others in today’s economy, there are a lot of mediocre energy consultants in the business. A quality energy auditor can be difficult to find, that is, unless you know what to look for. Not everyone who claims to be an energy auditor nowadays truly knows how to be an effective consultant.

Now, you have to decide what you want from an energy auditor. The thing is, different companies have different definitions of what an energy auditor actually is, and they have developed different expectorations based on those beliefs.

Remember, you will get what you pay for. If you run across a cheap energy auditor it is probably not the best idea to utilize them unless they have excellent and verifiable references. You do not want a limited audit designed to sell you a product either.

Make sure that you know that you are getting a comprehensive energy audit by a qualified professional. Do not be afraid to ask questions, verify answers and do your homework.

Remember, while nonprofit companies may with good intentions offer free audits, these are often not done by truly qualified professionals. The nonprofits get grants for energy preservation but the funds are simply not enough to hire the best.

Experience counts when it comes to finding a good energy auditor! It comes down to more than the right fixtures. Your auditor should have a comprehensive understanding of things like domestic hot water, boilers, chillers, air handlers, control systems, compressed air, package units and all of and their components just to name some.

Learning all you need to about this industry can take years, so experience is a key thing to look for.

In summary, find an energy auditor that you can trust with a minimum of 10 years’ experience if possible. Make sure that the one you choose is a CEM (Certified Energy Manager) or a Professional Engineer (PE). Know exactly what you can expect for the sum you have agreed to pay, so that you know all of your needs are being met. Do not assume anything.

It is always best to evaluate at least 3 companies before making a final decision on which one to go with. And finally, get a resume and ask for references for the individual performing the audit and not on the company in general.

You should come out just fine if you follow the guidelines above; good luck!

Let us first take a look at the difference between a walk-in freezer and a coolroom.

Actually, their main difference is the level of temperature. While a coolroom is designed to keep its contents in cool temperature to keep them fresh, a freezer is set to provide temperature below zero degrees Celsius. The latter is designed to keep whatever is inside it frozen. For example, vegetables and other produce and fresh meat are stored in coolrooms while mice cream is ideally stored in a freezer. Furthermore, a walk-in freezer should is built with more insulation inside its walls and its flooring is built differently.

If you are operating a restaurant or supplying perishables to various establishments, you would need to acquire the right storage. And as discussed above, coolrooms and walk-in freezers have their own products to protect. If you have lots of deliveries within a week and you still have enough space, then it is absolutely important that you purchase a cold room, walk-in freezer, or both. Both temperature control rooms would be great for storing huge containers and boxes of produce, cheese, pails of food and just about anything else that is huge and perishable.

Most hotels and large restaurants have become heavily reliant on appliances that offer to make their work easy and to add efficiency to the kind of work that they do. Coolrooms and walk-in freezers eliminate going to the market everyday buying fresh produce for the day’s offers. With coolrooms and walk-in freezers, large amounts of consumables can be stored and kept fresh for days. And, what has not been consumed today may be stored and re-used until the next days. Without coolrooms and walk-in freezers, all perishable items such as vegetables, fruits, dairy products, and meat will rot and be made practically useless. This can lead to large amounts of losses for the owner of the establishment.

As soon as the need for refrigeration became a necessity, companies linked with meat-packing and breweries began using the latest temperature control methods in preserving their products. And thanks to continuous research, the corner convenience store and restaurant can now have superior options when it comes to refrigeration and cold storage. Today, with the introduction of modern technology, we have far better and superior options for cold storage and refrigeration. Today, we heavily depend on refrigeration and cold storage for our daily life needs. These apparatuses work towards keeping the food items in safe and consumable condition.

Bigger refrigerated units are being installed in large warehouses. A lot of big manufacturing and distribution forms make use of cold storage warehouses with walk-in freezers and coolrooms in order to keep their products in safe consumable condition.

As was already mentioned, the type of food that needs to be preserved will decide on the kind of cold storage that will be installed. Aside from food, other items that require consistently cool temperatures include medical supplies and chemicals.

It is essential to your operations to guarantee that you have a clean and mould-free cold room. The incorrect maintenance procedures can result to contamination of your food and create possible health issues. To aggressively combat contamination, there are some procedures that you need to follow aside from making sure that you adhere to the required temperature requirement when storing perishable items. Here are some of them:

Hire a professional to clean your cold room storage. You can be assured of professional cleaning procedures with outsourced cold room cleaning contractors. With them, you are guaranteed that all surfaces are thoroughly cleaned. They also record all their cleaning chores which mean you would know when the next ideal cleaning schedule would be. All metal surfaces should be wiped clean and they will be able to do that. They also use the right cleaning solutions for every type of surface and you can rest assured that they will painstakingly check all your stored items for possible mould growth.

Cleaning chemicals


All cold room contractors use various chemicals in sanitizing cold rooms. Most use ethanol because of the chemical’s favourable and effective effects. They also check with our current state laws and procedures required for these types of sanitation jobs. The moment you suspect the formation of mould, have it checked right away because it may be already causing health complications. It is important to call a professional to make sure that your cold room is compliant and working in tiptop condition.

The cold room’s floors, walls, ceilings and shelving should all be cleaned and completely sanitized to help preserve and fulfil sanitation requirements.

Hygiene is always of highest importance inside the cold room. Cleaners usually begin with the cold room’s compressor and the area around it if they are accessible. A simple vacuum cleaner with crevice tools will do the trick if you want to get rid of dust accumulation in that particular area.

Inside the cold room, it is very important to keep the floor surface spic and span. Spills can be removed with warm water and soap. Although not totally unhygienic, spills can cause accidents for everyone entering the cold room. Abrasive cleaners are also important in making sure that everything that got stuck on the walls and floors of the cold room are totally removed.

Before, a lot of cold rooms were not designed to have ventilation at all. This has caused a number of problems including the production of too much carbon dioxide within the cold room. After a while, cold rooms are now designed with ventilation systems to assure the presence of fresh air. This idea worked well for quite some time but eventually, users cold rooms soon discovered me that this can cause the formation of excessive moisture inside. Dampness can result in the growth of mould inside your cold room which can lead to more storage issues. The solution is constant and excellent cold room cleaning procedure performed by professionals.

Proper Cold Room Cleaning Method

In order to remove the mould, there are certain procedures that you cold cleaning experts follow. They typically use various cleaning materials such as ethanol, vinegar, and other disinfectants. After removing all the contents of the cold room, most cold room cleaners use vacuum to extract waste and high pressure water to get rid of stale items and other garbage.

After the mould has been eradicated, the cold room contractor will most likely attempt to locate the source of the mould. This is highly important, or else the mould will continuously grow no matter how much cleaning is performed on the cold room. First off, they will try to see if the moisture accumulation is within tolerable level or there is excessive condensation happening inside the room. They will definitely inspect the materials stored inside the cold room to check if any of them are causing the contamination and recurrence of mould. Next on the list may be the insulation on the cold room walls. It is essential to check if they are still intact and working, otherwise, they may be the cause of the formation of moulds. Some even have tools to perform a mould air test to measure the amount of contamination.

When all of these still do not solve the mould issue in your cold room, most experts would resort to abrasive blasting and replacement of the damaged walls. Yes, there are times when some of the components of your cold have to be replaced most especially if you have insulation that has been irreversibly damaged by moulds.

Outsourcing the regular cleaning of your cold room condenser and having the evaporators de-frosted regularly will extend the life of your equipment and maintain the correct temperature inside your cold rooms.

Sanitization in cold rooms is very important especially if you are dealing with fresh meat and other perishable produce. Fats that come from meat and other items can infect the airflow and the ice build-up will limit continuous airflow. Constant cleansing with cold room cleaning experts will help you remove fatty deposits trapped on the evaporator and this ensures that hygiene levels are maintained.

There are certain industries which require the use of a cool room or freezer. Fine examples are supermarkets and large convenience stores. These are establishments which need to keep some of their products frozen, or else they rot in a matter of hours. Items that need to kept in cool rooms and freezers all the time include meat and meat products (hotdogs, ham, et cetera), fish, dressed chicken, and a lot more. Bars need to keep their beers chilled, otherwise they will have a hard time keeping their customers. Installing a cool room or freezer can provide unlimited benefits for establishments that handle perishable items. Nevertheless, cool rooms can also prove to be advantageous to firms that do not deal with any physical product. How is that?

Any type of enclosure that has food and food products in it that is not completely sealed would definitely do better from a cool room or freezer. Germs thrive best when the environment is warm. When food is stored in a cool room, the result would be less waste and better, fresher products.

On the other hand, laboratories, research facilities, and other companies that deal with chemicals need cool rooms for the same reason. Chemical volatility invariably rises when temperature increases and keeping volatile chemicals in a cool environment can significantly minimize the possibility of accidents from happening.
But, a lot of people are not aware that companies dealing with soft goods such as paper or fabric also benefit greatly from cool rooms. Cool rooms provide something that is essential in keeping paper and paper fibre from expanding or shrinking, and that is low, stable humidity. Changes in humidity can cause paper and paper pulps to contract or expand and these expansion and contraction can hasten the degradation of paper product.

Servicing or Replacing a Cool Room

Cool rooms are vital to many industries and that is the reason why it is important to have this equipment well-maintained. Determining if a cool room or freezer requires repair or replacement should be done by cool room and industrial freezer experts. Maintenance is of utmost importance because replacement can be quite costly. Regular maintenance schedule will provide managers and business owners peace of mind, plus, it can extend the life of your system.

Constant maintenance work is essential in making sure that your cool room is working fine. You have to keep in mind that these freezers are some of the biggest consumers of electrical power. Poor cool room maintenance makes them susceptible to bigger energy costs. Large cool rooms and freezers should be able to comply with State Government Standards of efficiency. And this is where you need expertise of cool room service professionals. Because cool rooms are major investments inside your premises, cool room technicians are required to service and repair these fridge rooms and freezers in order to optimise their efficiency and save you both energy and money.

Not all companies have the sort of capital that allows them to upgrade all of their old equipment whenever they want or even need. Commonly, business owners are at risk of not being able to do anything to prevent incurring losses when those pieces of equipment finally break down. If you would consider yourself among the group at risk, fear not, because there are services available to you that could improve the energy efficiency of the equipment you have already. An energy audit is one such service.

Performing an energy audit correctly requires a combination of skills and knowledge that could be gained only through years of doing it. This service involves inspecting, surveying and analyzing the energy flowing within a building, process, or system in order to reduce the amount of energy input therein without negatively affecting its output or outputs.

An energy audit may also be described as a combination of art and science. For example: any change made to a piece of equipment or a part of a process or system is likely to have an effect on the others, so making such changes must be done with consideration to the context of the entire operation. Both honed skills and industry-specific expertise are needed to be able to so. Further, it takes a great knowledge of industrial systems, processes, and environments to optimize the operation of all the pieces of equipment used for an industrial system.

If you could find a provider of energy auditing services that combine such science with such art, then you would be ensured equipment energy efficiency possibly at little cost.

Four reasons why you need an energy audit

1. An energy audit could save you money. This service costs hundreds to thousands of dollars less than replacing your old equipment which no longer functions properly or having these pieces of equipment repaired.

2. An energy audit enables you to streamline. To be precise, an energy auditor gives you an overall view of your entire system’s energy performance, which enables you to identify the systems and/or processes that consume the most energy and then prioritize what needs to be done or changed. It also enables you to focus your efforts one system or component at a time, increasing your chances for a substantial return on investment.

3. An energy audit lets you learn even more about your equipment. You’ll be able to compare actual operating parameters, the equipment manufacturers’ specifications, and industry-accepted energy efficiency best practices with such knowledge—enabling you to apply the ones most suitable for you.

4. An energy audit could enable you to come up with better ways of running your company. For example: A well-implemented energy management program could cause the perspectives of all the stakeholders in your company to shift towards a better understanding of energy as a controllable cost, which will enable everyone to run the company even better.

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