While all buildings insulated by Thermomass realize significant energy savings, Cold storage facilities may receive the greatest benefit. Given the size of cold storage facilities and the significant cooling loads needed to keep a building chilled at cooler or freezer temperatures, it should come as no surprise. However, most owners don’t realize the full benefit until they’ve constructed and operated one for themselves.
According to Ray Penner, Refrigeration Manager at Gerawan Farming in Central California, “We operate about 250,000 square feet under refrigeration. The operating temperatures varies from about 29 F to about 33 F. the rooms are very large – 100 ft wide and 200 ft long. It usually takes 200 tons of refrigeration to maintain the room. I’m seeing 50 to 90 tons to keep the Thermomass facility at 32 F”.
Not only are cold storage facilities insulated by Thermomass energy-efficient, they are also durable, and help produce healthy product. The concrete sandwich walls are load bearing, thereby freeing up valuable interior space for product movement and storage. The rugged interior and exterior finishes require minimal upkeep and are virtually impervious to forklift damage. This dramatically reduces building maintance costs over the life of the building.
It’s apparent that both the owner and maintenance department will have an appreciation for Thermomass insulated concrete walls, but so will consumers.
According to Gerald A. Mele, P.E., S.E, of Gerald Mele & Associates, “It’s much easier to maintain temperature in the Thermomass building. If you’re storing grapes, stone fruit, or whatever, for more than just a few days – the less refrigeration that you can operate, the less drying you’ll have of the product, the better presentation you’ll have when you’ll have when you pull it out of storage.”
The following project profiles will help you learn more about the specific benefits provided by Thermomass insulation systems and concrete sandwich wall construction.
Donnewald Distributing
The owners of Donnewald Distributing set out to prove that you could go green in the beer business where facilities traditionally consume a significant amount of cooling energy.
Turnbull Winery
Located in the heart of the Napa Valley, the Turnbull Wine Cellars were constructed to serve a number of vineyards totalling 185 acres of several popular grape varieties.