Segment
Logistics centres and warehouses
Protect the cold chain and add cooling headroom on peak days — without waiting for a bigger grid connection.
When your operation depends on temperature, cooling and heating aren't a utility bill — they're uptime. A cold chain that drifts out of range, a chiller that can't keep up on the hottest day of the year, a grid connection that won't stretch to the next expansion: in logistics, these aren't inconveniences. They're risk to product, to compliance, and to the promise you make every customer.
The Thermal Box turns that pressure into headroom. It stores cooling when energy is cheap and abundant, and delivers it through the peak hours of the day. Your existing refrigeration keeps doing its job, just spread more evenly across 24 hours — more cooling capacity on peak days, a steadier load on your equipment, and lower energy cost at the hours that cost the most.
Common use cases
- Cold-chain cooling that holds temperature through peak days
- Cooling headroom for expansion within the existing grid connection
- Load shifting away from the most expensive peak hours
Typical outcomes
- More capacity without a bigger grid connection
- No downtime to install — modular and retrofit-ready
- Gentler on your equipment, for a longer service life
Why now
Common pain points in logistics centres and warehouses
Distribution centres feel the energy squeeze more sharply than almost any building type. Loads are large and run around the clock, and cooling demand spikes on exactly the days the grid is most strained and power is most expensive. The buildings themselves — large footprints, high ceilings, constant door movement — were rarely sized for the summers we now see, or the volumes you handle today.
- Peak days put product at risk — on the hottest days the question isn't cost, it's whether the system can hold temperature at all
- Growth is blocked by the grid, not the building — a bigger connection is often the slowest, most expensive and least predictable part of any project
- Energy cost is high and only climbing — round-the-clock cooling makes it one of the largest controllable line items in the operation
Indicative sizing
Built for retrofit, from a single site to a whole network
Modular and retrofit-ready, the Thermal Box fits into existing plant rooms or unused yard and parking space, and commissions without interrupting operations. Scalable across a single site or an entire European network — the more you operate, the more there is to gain.
- thermal storage
- 200–500 kWh
- PCM range
- −18 → 4 °C
- downtime to install
- Zero
Recommended solutions for logistics centres and warehouses
Increase cooling capacity
Add cooling headroom for growth or hotter summers without upsizing chillers.
SolutionReduce grid peak demand
Shift load away from peak hours and tariff windows — no grid upgrade needed.
SolutionCompact thermal storage
Fits existing plant rooms or unused yard and parking space, indoors or out.
Common questions
Got questions about thermal storage?
From PCM chemistry and lifetime to indoor vs outdoor installs and typical payback — the answers are in the full FAQ.
Read all questionsWhat is thermal energy storage?
The term is used when storing energy as heat or cold, which can be released at a later stage. The heat or cold is usually stored when energy is cheap and then released when the heating or cooling demand is at a peak or the cost of energy is high.
What is PCM?
PCM means Phase Change Material and refers to any material that changes state, for example from solid to liquid, when reaching a certain temperature. This phase change enables large amounts of energy to be absorbed or released. Water is one PCM, storing cold at zero degrees Celsius by changing phase to ice. Cartesian uses a wide variety of other materials, such as bio-based waxes, to store heat or cold at different temperatures.
Is the Thermal Box and the PCM flammable?
For applications with HVAC systems, Cartesian's Thermal Box is not considered flammable. While some PCM might be flammable when they reach temperatures above 100 °C or more, the Thermal Box is designed to eliminate any risks of reaching flammability conditions in operations.
Are PCMs safe?
Cartesian offers only safe PCMs and primarily uses bio-based PCMs in the Thermal Box. The PCM will stay in the Thermal Box for its whole lifetime and is not consumed during operation. The Thermal Box is also designed to avoid any risk of PCM leakage.
Let's build the smarter grid