Experimental study of temperature characteristic and energy consumption of a large-scale cold storage with buried pipe cooling

In this paper, a buried pipe cooling system is proposed for use in cold storage. To evaluate this cold storage system, the temperature non-uniformity and fluctuation are evaluated, and energy consumption is measured. The results show that the temperature in this cold storage unit is stable; the temperature non-uniformity ranges from 0.56 to 0.71 °C, and the temperature fluctuation ranges from 0.25 to 0.72 °C. The temperature characteristics at various vertical heights are substantially different. In the upper and middle layers, the temperature is relatively low. In the middle layer, the temperature characteristic is most stable (the temperature non-uniformity ranges from 0.21 to 0.33 °C, and the fluctuation is from 0.16 to 0.48 °C) relative to the lower and upper layers. Moreover, the specific energy consumption (SEC) of this cold storage unit is only 7.04 kW·h·m−3·year−1, which is lower than that of many previously studied cold storage units, due to numerous factors. Based on the results, certain heights are recommended to better maintain the quality of the food in storage. To conserve energy consumption in the later period of the cold storage operation, one option is to increase the cost in the early stage and apply various energy-saving methods during design and construction.