If your open dairy or beverage cases, walk-in coolers, cold rooms, or freezers are running 24/7 without a barrier across the opening, you’re very likely paying for cold air that never reaches your product. Based on published research on open-case infiltration loss, a properly fitted PVC strip curtain used continuously can cut refrigeration energy consumption by up to 40% — with no change to how staff or customers access what’s inside. 

That’s not a small line item. It’s one of the fastest, lowest-disruption paybacks available anywhere in a refrigeration setup — and the same principle applies well beyond a single dairy case.

Why So Much Energy Disappears Through an Open Case

Walk past any open dairy or beverage cooler in a supermarket and you’ll feel it — a wall of cold air spilling out into the aisle. That’s not just an uncomfortable draft. It’s refrigeration you paid for, drifting away before it ever does its job.

Open, multi-deck display cases are popular for a reason: shoppers can grab a carton of milk or a six-pack without fumbling with a door, and merchandisers love the unobstructed sightlines. But that convenience has a cost. Industry research consistently identifies infiltration — warm store air mixing into the cold air curtain — as the single largest source of cooling loss in open cases, accounting for the large majority of the total refrigeration load on these units. Every minute the case sits open to the room, your compressor is fighting a losing battle against the air around it.

A PVC strip curtain fixes the physics without sacrificing the convenience.

The Idea Is Simple — and Not New

Supermarkets have used barriers to cut this loss for decades, usually in the form of solid night covers that roll down after closing. Those covers work: independent utility testing has found that covering an open case can cut its energy draw substantially for every hour the cover is in use, and product literature on early retractable night covers documented real installations where energy use over an overnight period dropped by roughly a third compared to leaving the case uncovered.

The problem with a solid night cover is exactly what’s in the name — it only works at night. During trading hours, when the store is busiest, the case sits wide open and the losses continue right through the day.

A PVC strip curtain closes that gap. Because the strips part easily for a hand or a product, staff and customers can access the case exactly as before — but the moment nobody’s reaching in, the strips fall back into place and the barrier reseals itself. You get the always-on protection a night cover can only offer part-time.

What Kind of Savings Are We Talking About?

Based on published test data on refrigerated display case infiltration and barrier performance, a well-fitted PVC strip curtain used continuously on an open dairy or beverage case can realistically be expected to cut refrigeration energy consumption by 20–40%, depending on:

• How well the strips are fitted and maintained (torn or gapped strips lose effectiveness fast)
• The temperature and humidity of the surrounding store
• How much the case is accessed during the day
• The specific case design and product load

For a typical single dairy or beverage case, that can translate into real, ongoing savings on your energy bill every single month — savings that compound across every case in your dairy and beverage aisles, month after month, with no change to your daytime shopping experience.

The Same Problem Exists in Walk-In Coolers, Cold Rooms, and Freezers

Open display cases aren’t the only place this happens — they’re just the easiest to feel. Every time a walk-in cooler, cold room, or freezer door is opened, the same infiltration process kicks in: warm, humid room air rushes in, the cold air spills out, and the compressor has to work to recover the temperature you just lost. In busy operations — a kitchen, warehouse, or distribution cold room with staff moving in and out all day — those door-opening losses add up fast, and a full door isn’t always practical when staff need to move product through quickly and constantly.

A strip curtain hung across the doorway solves this the same way it does on an open display case: it lets people and pallets pass through freely, but falls back into place immediately afterward, cutting off the continuous exchange of air that happens every second the doorway sits open or a door is propped for convenience.

Walk-in coolers and cold rooms: High-traffic doorways — think loading docks, prep kitchens, or busy storage rooms — are prime candidates. A strip curtain reduces the temperature swing every time the door opens, which means less compressor recovery time, more stable conditions inside, and less energy spent re-cooling the room after every trip through the door.

Freezers: The case for strip curtains is, if anything, even stronger here. The temperature differential between a sub-zero freezer and the surrounding room is larger than for a standard fridge or cold room, so every open-door moment pulls in more heat — and more moisture, which condenses and frosts up on evaporator coils, shelving, and product. That’s why strip curtains (often a heavier-duty, low-temperature-rated PVC) have long been standard equipment on busy walk-in and reach-in freezer doorways: they cut infiltration loss, reduce the frequency and severity of frost buildup, and ease the burden on defrost cycles.

Across all of these applications — open display cases, walk-in coolers, cold rooms, and freezers — the underlying win is the same: you keep full, fast access for the people who need it, while eliminating the continuous air exchange that’s quietly driving up your energy bill.

It’s Not Just About the Electricity Bill

Cutting infiltration doesn’t just save energy — it stabilizes the environment your products actually sit in:

• More consistent case temperatures, since the compressor isn’t constantly fighting warm air intrusion
• Reduced condensation and frost buildup, which means less maintenance and fewer product losses to moisture damage
• Longer product shelf life, particularly valuable for dairy items sensitive to temperature swings
• Less strain on your refrigeration system, potentially extending compressor life and reducing maintenance costs

A Fast, Low-Disruption Retrofit

Unlike replacing an open case with a fully doored unit — a significant capital investment that can also slow down shopper access — a PVC strip curtain installs directly onto your existing case in a fraction of the time, at a fraction of the cost, and with zero disruption to how customers shop.

If you’re running open dairy or beverage cases, walk-in coolers, cold rooms, or freezers 24/7 and haven’t addressed infiltration loss, you’re paying for cold air that’s leaving before it ever does its job. A properly fitted PVC strip curtain is one of the simplest, fastest-paying-back changes you can make to any of these setups.

Browse the Byson PVC strip curtain range:

• Open Cooler / Merchandiser Kits — purpose-built for open refrigerated display cases
• Polar Grade PVC Strips — rated to -45°C for walk-in freezers and blast chillers
• Standard Strip Curtain Kits — for walk-in coolers and cold room doorways
• Commercial Roll-Up Door Kits — for loading dock and warehouse freezer doors

Ready to see what it could do for your operation? Get in touch for a fitting assessment and a straightforward estimate of what a strip curtain retrofit could save across your cases, cold rooms, or freezer doorways.

Estimated savings of up to 40% are based on published third-party research on open refrigerated display case infiltration loss under continuous, undisturbed use. Actual results vary by installation type, traffic patterns, ambient conditions, and maintenance — we’re happy to help you assess what’s realistic for your specific setup.