Open display cabinets are widely used in supermarkets and represent an important contribution to their energy consumption. The present study is related to modeling and experimental characterizations of an open display cabinet in a transient state. The model is based on a simplified zonal approach to determine heat transfer by conduction, radiation and convection within the display cabinet using experimental evap- orator outlet temperature as input data. It is used to simulate a fully loaded display case with 5 shelves. The model can be used to predict the dynamic behavior during the on-offprocess, defrost operations and power failure. The comparison with experimental data obtained on an open display shows a good agreement with simulating results and allows the model to be validated.