Big Savings for Small Grocery Stores

Ramin Faramarzi, Rafik Sarhadian, and Devin Rauss, Southern California Edison

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Abstract

Grocery stores are highly competitive businesses and operate on a very thin profit margin. One of the biggest expenses is the electric bill, which in small grocery stores can frequently exceed profits. According to end-use data from the California Energy Commission (CEC 2000), indoor lighting accounts for 26% and refrigeration for 38% of total energy usage in a typical food store. Grocery store lighting and refrigeration systems represent a fertile ground for potential energy savings.

This paper presents the results of a utility sponsored lighting and refrigeration technology retrofit project in a small grocery store in Santa Monica, California. The demonstration project assessed the benefits of improved indoor lighting and a sophisticated energy-efficient refrigeration system in a small grocery store environment. The project ascertained the retrofit solution impacts on:

1. Electric demand and energy usage
2. Owner profitability (based on electric utility bills)
3. Sales environment
4. Merchandising capacity
5. Human comfort
6. Environmental friendliness of the refrigeration system

Implementation of energy-efficient lighting and refrigeration technologies reduced lighting power demand by 22% and cut refrigeration power demand by up to 22%. During the post-monitoring period, the new energy-efficient retrofit system also reduced energy use of both lighting and refrigeration by 23%, each. Other benefits of the lighting and refrigeration system were:

• Improved human comfort by maintaining relatively constant indoor dry-bulb temperature regardless of ambient temperature fluctuations
• Improved sales environment through a 43% increase in store luminosity
• Increased merchandising volume by 60 cubic-feet