One of three articles supplying a practical guide to refrigeration. This article discusses the cooling load components of an open refrigerated display case. Refrigeration system energy use is important because it accounts for approximately half the electricity use of a typical large supermarket. Refrigerated display cases account for most of this usage.

Article appeared in the Practical Guide to Refrigeration, which was included with the vol. 41, no. 11, November 1999 issue.