What does an aerofoil fix?
An open multideck case keeps product cold with a curtain of chilled air falling down its open face. At each shelf edge that curtain turns turbulent and part of it spills into the aisle. The case then runs harder to replace the cold air it lost, and shoppers notice the cold aisle before anyone notices the meter.
An aerofoil is a profiled blade fixed to the shelf lip. It smooths the flow at the edge so the curtain stays together down the face of the case. It has no power, no moving parts and nothing to service, and it is normally fitted while the store trades.
What about the published savings?
The manufacturer, Aerofoil Energy, publishes saving figures from its own installations. We quote those, with their source, on our aerofoil page. They describe other retailers' cabinets.
Why measure before buying?
A figure on a data sheet describes a test cabinet. Store traffic, the building's own air conditioning, the age of the case and how its existing air curtain is set all change the real result.
The useful first step is a site visit with instruments: air velocity and temperature at the case, in each operating state, before anything is fitted. The same readings after installation show what changed. That before and after is the only number worth taking to finance.
How a retrofit runs across a store fleet
Composite example
A large format retailer has the same open dairy and deli cases in most of its stores. Because the case model repeats, the fleet does not need a different answer at every site.
A sample of stores is measured first. The results confirm which aerofoil profile suits that case. Each store is then priced, and the retrofit is staged against the capital cycle instead of committing the whole estate to an unmeasured assumption. Stores are remeasured after fitting, so the next stage is funded on readings from the retailer's own cases.
What this is not
Aerofoils are a retrofit to existing cases. They are not refrigeration plant design, replacement or servicing, which belongs to a licensed refrigeration contractor. Nextage does not promise a saving before it has measured the store.
