Where do savings come from?
Move the shiftable portion of refrigeration electricity use from expensive to cheaper hours. Any additional savings from operational improvements need separate validation.
COLD STORAGE / PROJECT GUIDE
Explore your cold store.
Identify cost savings.
Store cooling during low-price hours. Use it when electricity costs more.
Turn a potential saving into a project supported by traceable data.
For cold store owners and partnersPrinciple → Screen → Collect → Calculate
COLD STORAGE / ILLUSTRATIVE SCENE
PCM cold storageMore flexibility in when you use electricity for cooling
Low-price hoursCool · Charge
High-price hoursDischarge · Supply cooling
Protect temperature and product requirements first Verify how much electricity use can be shifted Then assess investment and returns
01 / THE PRINCIPLE
Store cooling. Choose when to produce it.
PCM stands for phase change material. It stores cooling as it solidifies and absorbs heat as it melts, meeting part of the cold store's cooling load.
Refrigeration plantMeet the cold store load and charge with spare capacity
Cooling
PCM storage unitThe material solidifies, storing cooling
Charging is limited by the low-price time window and the plant's spare refrigeration capacity.
Why start with site data?
Floor area alone is not enough. Temperature, load, refrigeration capacity, operating hours and monthly tariff schedules determine the design.
What must the design satisfy?
Product temperature and safe operation come first. Engineering checks determine changes to plant scheduling and the share of peak-period load that can be covered.
Lower electricity bills do not imply an equal reduction in energy use. Do not apply the peak/off-peak price gap to all electricity use or treat forecast returns as a promise.
02 / PROJECT FIT
Recognise a promising cold store project.
Start with regularly operated cold stores in food processing and logistics, with clear time-of-use tariffs, complete bills and a willingness to support a site review.
03 / PROJECT REVIEW
A useful conversation starts with the cold store.
Review electricity costs, operation and retrofit conditions with sales and engineering. Establish the evidence needed before discussing capacity and investment.
Owner / Operations / Engineering
Identify the participants
Bring together the electricity bill payer, investor and people responsible for temperatures and equipment, so beneficiaries, decision-makers and engineers are involved.
Bills / Cooling demand / Operating conditions
Understand operation
Review a year's bills, temperature requirements and operating records to establish shiftable high-price demand and spare low-price charging capacity.
Evidence / Site visit / Review
Arrange a site assessment
Agree on the evidence checklist, site contact and visit. Once engineers have checked feasibility, review the configuration, installation requirements and forecast returns.
Our approach
“We first check whether some refrigeration electricity use can move to cheaper hours while maintaining product temperatures. Bills and operating conditions provide the basis for a defensible design and payback estimate.”
Agree on the assessment objective, evidence sources and next conversation.
Do not promise fixed savings, shutdown hours or a payback period upfront.
04 / YOUR TOOLKIT
Collect the facts. Calculate the project.
Field collects site evidence; whcal checks engineering and payback. This guide needs no registration. Your contact can help collect information; the system links below are for authorised users.
field.passive-edge.tech
Collect site evidence first
Keep photos, bills and operating conditions together so calculations can be traced back to the source.
Open Field partner login Authorised account required; opens in a new window. Contact your sales representative if you need access.- 1
Sign in as a partner
Ask your sales contact to arrange an authorised account. In the partner centre, open Site information (现场资料).
- 2
Collect and submit evidence
Follow the system form to enter operating conditions and upload bills, nameplates and site photos. Your contact can assist or use the system's customer collection link.
- 3
Complete missing information
Check units, metering boundaries and sources. Mark unavailable information as pending; never use zero to mean unknown.
- 4
Submit for engineering review
Internal engineers review and freeze the baseline, creating a traceable site version for the next calculation stage.
Output: reviewable site data and evidence. After the baseline is formally frozen, authorised internal staff manage the system handover.
Field → Internal review and baseline freeze → whcal draft → Engineering checks and formal approval. Authorised internal staff manage the handover; partners do not handle import tokens.
05 / WORKED EXAMPLE
Make the payback calculation transparent.
A large cold store retrofit scenario. All figures below are teaching assumptions, not any real customer's parameters, prices, results or endorsement.
DEMO 01 / TEACHING SCENARIOA continuously operated low-temperature store.
A continuously operated low-temperature store.
How do you assess the investment?
Assume the owner provides a full year's bills and permits changes to operation that preserve product temperatures.
- Field gathers the evidenceVerify tariff hours, equipment conditions, temperature requirements and metering boundaries.
- whcal checks the engineeringFirst check that the store can charge and discharge as required, then calculate monthly shifted electricity and the bill difference.
- Compare total investment with annual net savingsAssuming a feasible design, use the full installed project cost, not just the purchase price of materials.
Teaching assumptions · Simple payback
Total project investment120 × CNY 10,000
Baseline annual bill savings33 × CNY 10,000 / year
Baseline additional annual operating costs3 × CNY 10,000 / year
Baseline annual net savings = (33 − 3) × CNY 10,000 = CNY 300,000 / year
How does a change in annual net savings affect payback?
Simple payback4.00 years
CNY 1,200,000 ÷ CNY 300,000 / year
Annual net savings: CNY 300,000
This only illustrates total investment divided by annual net savings. It assumes constant annual savings and excludes financing, income tax, the time value of money and residual value. It does not replace whcal engineering calculations or investment analysis. Non-positive annual net savings yield no positive simple payback period.
Explain what the investment includes, the evidence behind annual net savings, operating assumptions and the distinction between forecasts and measured results.
06 / NEXT STEP
Prepare your project with this checklist.
Gather available records, agree on gaps with your sales contact and submit through authorised Field access. Ticks are only for this reading session and clear on refresh.
First site visit checklist · Ready 0 / 6 Download blank checklist TXT
READY WHEN YOU ARE
Let site evidence
shape the design.
Discuss your cold store, electricity costs and retrofit objectives with us to agree on the next assessment step.
Discuss a collaboration View Field / whcal instructions ↓Already working with a sales contact? Agree on the checklist and site assessment date with them.