Dehumidification for cold storage and refrigerated warehouses
Uncontrolled humidity can significantly impact cold storage operations
The symptoms of excess humidity in cold storage are hard to miss. Condensation, ice buildup, fog, and reduced energy efficiency are the warning signs of uncontrolled humidity. Moisture can make its way into cold stores, refrigerated warehouses, and freezers through loading dock doors, gaps in walls, and even through the people working in the room.
Regardless of how moisture gets in, high humidity leads to slippery floors, damaged product, slower operations, and higher energy bills. Defrost cycles and heating strips in problem areas can help control condensation, but they are expensive, inefficient, and only partially effective. The most cost-effective moisture control solution for cold storage facilities is desiccant dehumidification.
With excess humidity in your cold store, you risk:
- Slower operations and lower worker efficiency
- High energy costs
- Worker safety
- Damaged product
“The condition of the cold store has greatly improved and we are now snow and ice free for the first time in many years. We no longer have issues with the refrigeration equipment icing, blocking up and the cold store is now the best it’s ever been for excessive ice and snow build up on the walls and packaging.”
Andy Gordon
Kitchen Range Foods, England
A cold store should not contain ice
If your cold store has a moisture problem, you probably battle some or all of these issues every day:
- Ice and frost build-up on surfaces and packages, hindering forklift trucks and workers
- Frozen evaporator coils, reducing their cooling efficiency
- Fog and reduced visibility, icy floors and increased safety incidents
- Barcode scanners don’t function correctly, affecting operational efficiency
- Higher energy consumption. Frequent defrosts and maintenance needed
But there is no reason to accept this situation. A cold store should not contain ice.
A refrigerated warehouse should not be humid
In a refrigerated, or "chilled" warehouse, excessive humidity and condensation risk to reduce the efficiency of the operations, as well as the quality of the stored products.
- Condensation on floors, risking worker safety
- Fog and reduced visibility
- Soggy cardboard cases that collapse when handled
- Product quality impacted by the moisture in the ambient air
- Mold and mildew growth
Industrial dehumidification for cold stores and chilled warehouses
Want to know how you can benefit from our desiccant dehumidification solutions?
Benefits of desiccant dehumidification for cold storage facilities
With a Munters desiccant dehumidification system, you can eliminate moisture problems at their source.
Increase cold storage energy efficiency
Energy for cooling represents one of the largest expenses that operators of cold storage facilities face, and humidity only makes cooling more expensive.
High humidity can increase cold storage energy usage in three ways:
- When moist air enters a cold room, it will condense and freeze on every surface it can. To remove ice, many facilities turn to heaters in critical areas like doors and floors. While they do prevent ice, using heaters in cold storage requires more energy to power the heaters, and also increases cooling loads. Using heaters is like stepping on your car’s gas and brake pedals at the same time – leading to wasted energy and higher utility costs.
- One of the first places affected by frost buildup in a cold storage warehouse is the evaporator coils of your cooling system. As ice thickness increases, cooling efficiency plummets and energy usage increases. To prevent this, most facilities have to run regular defrost cycles, which require even more energy.
- Even if your evaporator coils are frost free, high humidity can still increase your energy consumption. It takes more energy to cool moist air because you must remove both sensible heat (to lower the temperature) and latent heat (to condense and remove moisture). The higher the relative humidity, the more energy it will take to cool it.
With a Munters desiccant dehumidifier, you can remove moisture from your cold storage, and eliminate its impact on energy efficiency. In many cases, Munters energy efficiency dehumidifiers can provide total energy savings of up to 5%.
Munters market-leading dehumidification solutions
Munters has the expertise to help you find the optimal solution that will increase operational efficiency and save big on energy. The solution might vary depending on your facility´s design. Sometimes the most efficient solution is to remove the moisture already in the cooling dock and sometimes it’s better or necessary to focus on the cold room.
Inside the cold store: Munters IceDry 1400 AirC
Protect your cold storage from high humidity with the Munters IceDry 1400 AirC. The IceDry was designed specifically to remove moisture in cold storage facilities, refrigerated warehouses, walk in coolers, and freezers. The IceDry works by removing moisture at the source – from the air in your cold storage, or infiltrating air at docks and anterooms.
The Munters IceDry offers industry leading performance and energy efficiency in a stand-alone system that can be installed directly inside your cold storage. The system can operate independently in smaller cold rooms, or multiple units can be installed to protect larger warehouses.
For large cold storage facilities or refrigerated warehouses, the Munters ICA desiccant dehumidifier is the solution to moisture and condensation issues. This highly customizable system is available in many sizes and configurations that can be engineered to meet your needs.
The ICA offers energy-efficient humidity control and features double metal walls and a no-through metal design to prevent condensation. It can be integrated with your existing HVAC system and can be configured to include cooling capabilities.
Munters trustworthy ML series or MX series of dehumidifiers are the recommended choice when the situation calls for the dehumidifier to be placed outside of the actual cold room.
This highly customizable system is available in many sizes and configurations, engineered to meet your needs. From a smaller ML stand-alone unit or a medium-sized PLUS system, to a complete MX PLUS system for larger facilities, offering energy-efficient control of temperature and humidity.
