A STUDY OF ENERGY USE IN GROCERY STORES
Conference Paper
Overview
Additional Document Info
View All
Overview
abstract
This paper reports on two grocery store studies in south central Texas. The results from a survey of 93 stores are presented first. Then, we focus on a case study of a grocery store that has been intensely studied, including submetering. All stores belonged to the same grocery chain. The results of the 93-store survey showed that, on average, most stores were about the same size and the total electricity consumption per square foot was roughly 9 W/ft2for all stores, varying by only 2 W/ft2. This seemed to be due to a predictable amount of refrigeration capacity in the stores, roughly 150 hp per store. In this survey, stores built after 1979 had roughly 9% less energy consumption per square foot than those built before 1979 due to a change in energy management policy. Heat reclamation from the refrigeration systems provided an adequate means of space heating for most winter conditions. In many cases, stores used natural gas almost entirely for cooking. The monitoring of component electricity loads proved useful in making the store management aware of operational and maintenance problems. Grocery store energy use was divisible into components, some of which were dependent on store size. Early results from the case study indicate that peak end-use estimates of electricity use served reasonably well as proxies for measured data. This is probably due to the large refrigeration loads and near-continuous operation of most equipment.
