Spa Refrigeration fixes coolrooms, commercial fridges and air conditioning around Daylesford. What it does, and why it sits beside a solar business.

Spa Refrigeration is a commercial refrigeration and air conditioning business based in Hepburn, next to Daylesford, and it has the same owner as Trentham Energy. It installs and repairs coolrooms, freezer rooms, commercial fridges, display cabinets and beer systems, and installs split and ducted air conditioning and heat pump hot water across Hepburn Shire and the Macedon Ranges. It is a separate business with its own phone number and its own website at sparefrigeration.com. This article explains what it does and why a refrigeration business and a solar business belong side by side.

What Spa Refrigeration does

From its own site, the work falls into five groups.

Commercial refrigeration. Coolrooms, freezer rooms, display cabinets and beer systems for cafes, pubs, wineries, shops and farms.
Split system air conditioning. Wall hung and multi head systems for a room or a whole house.
Ducted heating and cooling. Whole home reverse cycle with zoning, run through the roof space.
Heat pump hot water.
Repairs and maintenance on all of the above, with breakdowns triaged the day you call.

The site lists brands including Mitsubishi Electric, Daikin and Fujitsu, with Panasonic, Toshiba, Midea, LG and Samsung also serviced. New systems are quoted before anything is ordered, and repairs are charged as a service call that covers the call out, the time on site and the parts.

Spa Refrigeration does not sell solar or batteries. Its site sends those enquiries to Trentham Energy.

Where it works

Spa Refrigeration is based in Hepburn, with most of its work in Hepburn Shire and the Macedon Ranges and regular trips to Castlemaine, Kyneton, Creswick and Woodend. Its service area covers Daylesford, Hepburn Springs, Trentham, Clunes, Maldon, Ballan, Smeaton and the towns between.

That is the same country we cover from Trentham, which is part of why the two businesses work well together: the same roads, the same frosts, the same storm outages.

A business with a long local history

Spa Refrigeration has been working in Central Victoria since 2013. The previous owners, Chris and Garry, sold the business to the owner of Trentham Energy. Its site says it has more than 2,800 homes and businesses on its books, and that history of local jobs stayed with the business.

Why refrigeration and solar belong together

Refrigeration and air conditioning are not a side line in the energy world. The federal government's Cold Hard Facts 2022 report found that refrigeration and air conditioning equipment used about 67,950 GWh of electricity in 2021, roughly a quarter of all the electricity generated in Australia that year. The next edition, Cold Hard Facts 4, released in August 2024, put the share at about 24% in 2022, across some 62 million refrigeration and air conditioning units. For a cafe, a winery or a farm with a coolroom, it is often the biggest single load on the meter.

Three things make the pairing natural.

The load runs when the sun shines. Coolroom compressors and air conditioners work hardest on hot afternoons, exactly when a north facing solar array is making the most. A refrigeration load is one of the best uses of solar a business can have.
The cold has to be kept through a blackout. A coolroom full of stock is worth a lot more than the power it uses. A battery sized to carry the compressor through a storm outage is cheap insurance, and it is designed best when the refrigeration tech and the electrician talk to each other about starting current and run time.
Heat pumps are refrigeration. A heat pump hot water system and a reverse cycle air conditioner are refrigeration machines running in reverse. Trentham Energy fits iStore and Thermastore heat pump hot water and Daikin and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries air conditioning; Spa Refrigeration brings the refrigeration trade knowledge behind them.

We wrote more on the farm side of this in our article on solar and batteries for farm coolrooms and cold storage, and our air conditioning page covers the systems we fit.

The AI receptionist

Spa Refrigeration uses an AI receptionist named Tim on its phone line and its email. A small trade business misses calls when everyone is on a roof or in a coolroom, and a missed call about a dead freezer full of stock can mean a lost load of food. An AI receptionist means the call is answered and the details are captured even when the whole team is on the tools.

Tim is an AI, not a person.

Two businesses, one owner, kept separate

Trentham Energy and Spa Refrigeration share an owner and work the same district, but they are separate businesses with their own phone numbers and their own websites. If you need solar, a battery, an EV charger or off grid power, call us at Trentham Energy on 1300 3458 00 or use our contact page. If your coolroom is warm, your bar fridge has stopped or your split system is blowing cold air in June, call Spa Refrigeration on 0417 734 206 or visit sparefrigeration.com.

Questions

Who owns Spa Refrigeration?

Spa Refrigeration has the same owner as Trentham Energy. It was previously owned by Chris and Garry, who sold the business. It remains a separate business with its own phone number and website.

What areas does Spa Refrigeration cover?

It is based in Hepburn and works mostly across Hepburn Shire and the Macedon Ranges, including Daylesford, Hepburn Springs, Trentham, Kyneton, Woodend, Castlemaine, Creswick, Clunes, Maldon and Ballan.

Does Spa Refrigeration install solar panels?

No. Spa Refrigeration does refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump hot water. Solar, batteries and EV chargers go to Trentham Energy, and the two businesses work together when a job needs both.

Can solar run a coolroom?

Solar can carry much of a coolroom's daytime load, because the compressor works hardest when the sun is strongest. Keeping it cold overnight or through a blackout needs a battery or the grid. The battery has to be sized for the compressor's starting current as well as its running load.

Sources

Written by the Trentham Energy team.

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Spa Refrigeration: the sister business keeping Hepburn Shire and the Macedon Ranges cold