Cellar cooler installation for a hospitality venue, Southwark

The site and the brief

Climate Flow Limited replaced the cellar cooling system at a busy hospitality venue in Southwark, London. The old cellar cooling unit was taken out and a J&E Hall cellar cooler was installed in its place, with new pipework, electrical connections, and testing and commissioning. Commissioning is the final stage: setting the new system up and checking it runs as designed before it is handed over. Climate Flow installs and services cellar coolers for pubs, bars and hospitality venues across London and surrounding areas.

A cellar cooler is a refrigeration system that keeps a drinks cellar cool, so kegs and stock are held at a steady temperature. The brief was a straight replacement: remove the old unit and fit a system specified for storing drinks in a commercial setting.

Scope of work

The job ran in five stages.

1. Removal. The old cellar cooling unit was disconnected and taken out.
2. Installation. The J&E Hall cellar cooler was fitted with new pipework.
3. Brazing and leak testing. The pipe joints were brazed, which means joined by heating them and running in a melted filler metal. The refrigerant circuit was leak tested.
4. Electrics. The new unit was connected to the site's electrics.
5. Testing and commissioning. The system was run, tested and commissioned.

Equipment installed

We install and service J&E Hall, and this job used a J&E Hall cellar cooler, specified for commercial drinks storage. It is designed to hold the cellar at the right temperature for the stock it keeps.

Why removal and leak testing are controlled work

Many commercial refrigeration systems contain F gas (fluorinated gas, the refrigerants covered by UK F-gas rules). Work on those systems is regulated. GOV.UK guidance says a company must be certified to install, repair, maintain or decommission equipment containing F gas. The same guidance says anyone who handles F gas must hold a personal qualification to do so (GOV.UK, certification for companies working on F gas equipment). Climate Flow is F-Gas certified.

Where an old unit holds F gas, taking it out is part of that work. A technician qualified to work with F gas must recover the gas from equipment, including when it has reached the end of its life. Releasing F gas into the atmosphere on purpose when there is no need to is against the law (GOV.UK, recovering F gas when disposing of equipment).

Depending on how much F gas a system holds, the leak test at installation may not be the last one. The rules measure F gas in tonnes CO2 equivalent: the amount of gas, weighted by how strongly it warms the climate compared with carbon dioxide. Equipment holding 5 to less than 50 tonnes CO2 equivalent of F gas must be leak checked at least once every 12 months. A leak that is found must be repaired as soon as possible and the test repeated within a month (GOV.UK, checking F gas equipment for leaks). How often a particular system needs checking depends on its charge, the amount of refrigerant it holds.

The result

The venue's cellar now runs on a J&E Hall cellar cooler with new pipework, brazed and leak-tested joints and new electrical connections, tested and commissioned on site. The system is designed to keep the cellar at the temperature the stock needs.

Related work

For what a replacement or new installation involves at your venue, see our cellar cooler installation service. It is part of our commercial refrigeration services, and more jobs like this one are on Our Projects. To talk about a cellar cooler at your site, call 020 3488 5452 or request a quote.

This guide is general information, not a survey or a quote for your site; every system is different, so an engineer needs to see yours before any work is priced.