How night blinds on multidecks can cut your energy bills

In supermarkets, corner shops, delis or any other food retail business, multidecks are the king of display fridges. Your customers can see what they’re going to buy, and they’ll most likely also throw in a few impulse purchases, too.

Although modern open-fronted multideck fridges are more energy-efficient than you might think, they still use a lot of energy. And that energy use is something you need to reduce to lower your carbon footprint… and your bills.

That’s where night blinds come in. On this page, our team here at Fridgesmart explains how your business can use multideck night blinds to cut your energy bills and improve your shop’s bottom line.

What are multideck night blinds?

So, what are multideck night blinds?

They’re pretty simple. Night blinds (sometimes called night covers) are pull-down reflective or insulated curtains or sheets, often translucent or transparent. They’re fitted to your open-fronted multideck fridges to ensure they cover as much of that open space as possible.

Once you’ve closed for the night, your staff pull down all the blinds. While this doesn’t create a perfect seal, you’ll trap a whole lot more cold in the multideck than you would otherwise.

Without night blinds, an open-fronted multideck continues to operate as it does throughout the rest of the day, losing its cooled air to your store’s warmer ambient temperature. That’s worth it during trading hours, as you should be getting more sales in return. But there’s no reason to waste all that cool air when your shop isn’t open.

How multideck night blinds can cut your energy bills

Multideck night blinds can significantly reduce your energy bills.

Your fridges cool their internal air through a heat exchange system driven by a compressor. The compressor forces refrigerant through a series of pressurised pipes, removing heat from the circulating air and sending it back into the room. This compressor is powered by mains electricity.

Now, the warmer your shop is, the harder your open-fronted multidecks have to work as cold air spills into the aisle. And almost all that work is done by the compressor.

Night blinds prevent this loss, so your compressor has significantly less to do. Spread this across your range of multidecks throughout your ‘closed’ hours, and you should find your energy bills are noticeably lower.

In other words, night blinds have a fantastic ROI.

Other ways night blinds cut your costs

And energy bill cuts aren’t the only benefit of night blinds. Here are a few more:

• Reduced equipment wear – the individual components of your fridge, like the compressor, have far less work to do when you have night blinds. That means they last longer and are less likely to require emergency repairs.
• Improved temperature consistency – from a food safety and quality perspective, night blinds make the environment in an open multideck more consistent. This helps your food stay safe and tasting great.
• Lower frost buildup – night blinds also reduce humidity in your multidecks. Since the unit’s heat exchange system naturally removes moisture too, you’ll get a much dryer internal environment, leading to less frost and, thus, fewer defrosting jobs.

Once you have night blinds, use them

Choosing and installing night blinds is all well and good, but the really important part is using them. So, train your staff to close them at night, open them in the morning, check for dirt, mould, rips, cracks and other damage.

Night blinds can make a massive difference to your energy bills. So, why not order and install them today? Fridgesmart stocks tried-and-tested night blinds for industry-leading TEFCOLD multideck fridges. To get your hands on a new model or ask for night blinds for your existing multidecks, please don’t hesitate to reach out on 01792 677169 or by emailing hello@fridgesmart.co.uk.

We look forward to hearing from you.