What does an air curtain do at a door?
An air curtain blows a controlled sheet of air across an opening. At a cool room door it cuts the cold air falling out and the warm air rolling in each time the door opens. At a store entry it does the same for the air conditioning.
It suits doorways that stay open or open constantly, where a door or strip curtain gets in the way of trolleys and staff.
Why set up matters
An air curtain is set up for its opening, not taken out of a box and switched on. Width, mounting height, air speed and the angle of the discharge all have to suit the doorway. A unit that is badly aimed or running too slowly moves air without sealing anything.
Why measure before buying?
A figure on a data sheet describes a test door. Store traffic, the building's own air conditioning and how often the door opens all change the real result.
The useful first step is a site visit with instruments: air velocity and temperature at the door, 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 cool room doors in most of its stores. A sample of stores is measured first, and the results show which doors are worth an air curtain.
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 doors.
What this is not
Air curtains are a retrofit to existing doorways. 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.
