How to Read a Cold Room Quotation: 8 Line Items Suppliers Leave Out

Two quotations for the same room differ by 20%. It is tempting to read that as one supplier being more expensive. Usually it means one supplier has included eight things the other has not — and you will pay for those eight things later, at a point where you have no leverage.

This is what to look for, and how to put two quotes on the same footing before comparing them.

Split every quotation into four blocks first

Whatever format you receive, re-sort it yourself:

1. Envelope — panels, doors, floor insulation, structure, sealants and consumables
2. Refrigeration — condensing unit, evaporators, condenser, valves, pipework, refrigerant, controls
3. Installation and commissioning — lifting, handling, labour, brazing, evacuation, charging, start-up, testing
4. Commercial terms — tax, warranty, response commitment, training, documentation

If a block is entirely absent, it is almost certainly excluded rather than "included elsewhere".

The eight items most often missing

1. Offloading, lifting and positioning. "Freight" normally covers line-haul to your site, not getting the unit off the truck and into place. Sites without forklift access, or with plant on a roof, can find this is a significant extra.

2. Evacuation, refrigerant charge and commissioning. A system is not finished when it is bolted down. Deep vacuum, pressure holding test, leak check, charging, start-up and control set-up are sometimes inside "installation" and sometimes billed separately. If they are excluded, expect a commissioning charge on site.

3. Cabling and containment from the control panel. A quotation for a "control panel" is usually a panel in a box. Cables from that panel to the unit, to the evaporators, to the room sensors, plus conduit and tray, are priced by length and add up quickly on anything but a small room. Cold-room lighting (which must be vapour-proof fittings) is a separate item again.

4. Floor insulation. For −18 °C and below, an uninsulated slab loses cold continuously and leads to ground heave and cracked floors over time. XPS insulation, vapour barrier and a wearing layer are separate line items — and floor insulation cannot be added later. Confirm it is in.

5. Door opening works. The door leaf is usually quoted; the structural surround, bumpers, strip curtain or air curtain, and the lintel above the opening often are not. If the door opens into a loading corridor, check whether the corridor itself is in scope.

6. Defrost drainage and trace heating. Melt water needs somewhere to go, and in a frozen room the drain line needs a heater cable or it will freeze. Small cost, serious consequence.

7. Tax, warranty wording and response time. Whether VAT or sales tax is included changes the total materially. Warranty length matters less than response commitment: "24 hours on working days" and "4 hours, calendar days" are very different promises, and whether call-out and parts are covered matters more than either.

8. Energy cost — which is not on the quotation at all. Not an omission in the paperwork, but the largest number in the project. Two units differing by 10% in efficiency will differ by far more than their price gap over ten years. Ask for input power, COP, and consumption at both full and part load.

The comparison table that makes two quotes comparable

Fill this in for each quotation. Mark absent items as "not included" — do not assume.

Once filled in, the price gap almost always has an explanation, and the explanation is usually three or four missing rows.

Engineering tip: make every supplier quote against the same blank equipment schedule — panels, unit, evaporators, valves, controls — with the parameters and quantities left as blanks for them to fill. The fields left empty or answered with a brand name only are exactly the places where scope is soft. It works better than another round of price negotiation.

Vague wording to send back before you compare

None of the following is dishonest, but each one leaves room for interpretation at exactly the wrong moment.

Engineering tip: ask each bidder to state the unit capacity at the same reference condition — for example −25 °C evaporating, 40 °C condensing. A quote given at −10 °C and one given at −25 °C can differ by more than 40% in real capacity while looking identical in horsepower.

Three warning signs in the document itself

• Capacity given in horsepower only, with no kW and no evaporating temperature. A serious selection is stated at a defined condition. Horsepower alone cannot be checked.
• Panel thickness quoted without density. "100 mm PU panel" is half a specification. 38 and 42 kg/m³ are different products at different prices.
• The word "etc." doing real work. "Including installation, commissioning, etc." with no list behind it is where variation orders come from.

Four clauses that belong in the contract

1. Specification as an annex. Every brand, model, quantity and key parameter listed. Anything agreed verbally does not exist.
2. Acceptance criteria. Room reaches design temperature and holds it for a continuous period — 72 hours of stable running is a common definition — measured at agreed points including the least favourable location, with calibrated instruments.
3. Pull-down time. A stated maximum time from ambient to design temperature. This is the single clause that prevents an undersized unit.
4. Variation control. No additional charges except against written changes initiated by the buyer. This one clause prevents most on-site surprises.

Questions worth asking before you sign

The scope table deals with what is written down. These four questions deal with what usually is not, and each one is quick to ask but expensive to discover later.

Who owns the interface? Somewhere between the room and the building there is a boundary — the power supply to the panel, the drain line leaving the room, the floor slab it stands on. If each side assumes the other has covered it, work stops on site and the delay is yours.

What is the spares position? Ask which wearing parts are stocked locally: door seals, heater elements, contactors, pressure controls, evaporator fan motors. A unit that cannot be repaired for three weeks because one contactor is on a slow boat is a commercial risk, not a maintenance detail.

Who does the first-year service, and at what price? Some suppliers include the first service visit, most do not, and tariffs jump once the project team has demobilised. Fixing the first-year service price and intervals now is far easier than negotiating it during the first breakdown.

What documentation comes with handover? As-built drawings, equipment list with certificates, control system manual, refrigerant charge record, and operating instructions. They cost the supplier almost nothing at handover and are effectively impossible to reconstruct later — which is exactly when a retrofit or a repair will need them.

Engineering tip: the answers to these questions also forecast the relationship. A supplier who answers all four in writing, with specifics, tends to be the one whose quotation holds up afterwards; one who answers them verbally with reassurance usually has the thinner file.

The principle

The useful question is not "which quote is cheaper" but "are these two quotes for the same room?" Once they are scoped identically, the comparison is easy and usually small.

And where a genuine saving is available, take it in a place that does not cost you every month. Thinner panels and a smaller unit are savings you pay for repeatedly; a simpler finish or a standard door is a saving you pay for once.

Send us the quotations you are comparing and we will mark up the scope differences and identify what is missing.