Before purchasing your walk-in, you may be wondering how much it will cost to operate your walk-in.

To give you a rough estimate of how much it cost to operate a walk-in cooler or freezer, using the national average of 11.89 cents per kilowatt, look at the chart below.

 
*These numbers were figured using the $.0999 kilowatt hour cost. According to the Energy Information Administration this is the average cost in the United States for commercial electricity.

This chart was created using several assumptions that can affect your actual operating cost.

1. The type of insulation in the walk-in.
2. Efficiency of the refrigeration system.
3. Inside and outside temperature of walk-in.
4. Where the walk-in is located.
5. The temperature and the weight of the product entering the walk-in.
6. How often the door is opened.
7. The age of the walk-in.
8. Cost of electricity.

This is just to name a few.  If you would like to be more accurate using your electric rate, follow the instructions below.

Most walk-in refrigeration systems are designed to run 80% of the time or between 16 and 18 hours per day. For a quick estimate of the cost to run your walk-in use the chart and formula below.

For standard sized walk-ins, we have estimated the average kilowatt hours used to run the selected sized walk-ins.  To figure out your monthly cost, select the walk-in you want to calculate and multiply the associated AKWH (Average kilowatt hours) by your cost per kilowatt.

AKWH * C = Average Monthly cost

For example, an 8×10 cooler would be figured by multiplying 1,113.86 by your monthly kilowatt rater per hour.  In this example we used our AKWH of 11.89 cents per KWH.

1,113.86 (AKWH) * $.1189 = $132.44 per month

If you would like to calculate an estimate on a different sized walk-in, follow the provided formula below. You will need to get a BTU (British Thermal Unit) requirement for the walk-in you would like to calculate.  You can get this information from calling your dealer, U.S. Cooler Company at 1800-521-2665 or go to U.S. Cooler’s refrigeration sizing program to size your walk-in.  If you have your dealer or U.S. Cooler on the phone you will also need to get the voltage and amperage of the refrigeration system that will match your BTU requirement.  When you have the amperage and volts of your refrigeration unit, follow the equation below for your average monthly electricity cost. Make sure you have the amperage and volts for both the condensing unit and evaporator coil.

Cooler: (((TW *16)/1000)*30.42)*C = Monthly Energy Cost

Freezer: (((TW)*18)/1000)*30.42)*C = Monthly Energy Cost

16 = Design run time for a Cooler per day

18 = Design run time for a Freezer per day

30.42 = Average days in a month

A = Amperage

V = Total Voltage of refrigeration unit

C = Your cost per kilowatt in dollars (This could be found on your electricity invoice.)

TW = (A*V) for condensing unit + (A*V) for evaporator coil

This takes the amperage (A) times the voltage (V) of the condensing unit plus the amperage (A) times the voltage (V) of the evaporator coil to get the total watts (TW) of the refrigeration system. The amount of watts used is then multiplied by the number of hours the system will run per day. For coolers the average is 16 hours and freezers average 18 hours per day. This will give you the daily amount of kilowatts required daily.  Multiply the daily required kilowatts by 30.42 which is the average days per month to get the monthly required kilowatts.  Multiply that number by the Kilowatt cost of electricity in your area to get your cost per month. This will give you an estimate of what the walk-in will cost to run per day in your area.

Example:  8×10 cooler, Condensing Unit A = 9.5, V = 230, Evaporator Coil A = .9, V = 115

C = $.1189

9.5*230 = 2,185 condensing unit watts

.9*115 = 103.5 evaporator unit watts

TW = 2,185 + 103.5 = 2,288.50

((((2,288.50)*16)/1,000)*30.42)*$.1189 = $132.44

As discussed above these formulas will give you an idea of the cost to run your walk-in and are not to be considered exact figures.  If you would like more accurate figures you need to contact a licensed mechanical engineer to design and calculate your system.

Cooler Connection, by U.S. Cooler Company, is a blog about refrigeration, walk-ins, and the foodservice industry. U.S. Cooler is a manufacturer of energy efficient walk-in coolers & freezers.