Energy optimization for your grocery store could reduce product waste
February 7, 2019
Owning a grocery store comes with a lot of expenses in upkeep, and energy costs may be one of the greatest expenses of them all. Most grocery stores spend about 15 percent of their budget on energy every year. More than 60 percent of the energy goes to lighting and commercial refrigeration.
It’s impossible to operate your grocery store without sufficient lighting and refrigeration, so you can’t cut these out. What you can do is optimize your lighting and refrigeration to be more energy efficient.
Energy-efficient grocery stores waste less product
Implementing a more energy-efficient lighting and refrigeration system in your grocery store can help lower your energy bills. This isn’t the only area where it saves you money, though.
More energy-efficient equipment lasts longer and puts less wear on your entire system. This means you’ll spend less money on replacing and repairing parts. Furthermore, improving your store’s energy efficiency can result in fewer refrigeration leaks and power issues that cause food to spoil.
Simple ways to have a more energy-efficient grocery store
It takes work to operate an energy-efficient grocery store but the payoff is worth it. Investing in more energy-efficient strategies will save your business a lot more in the long run.
Here are three simple ways you can get started toward having a more energy-efficient grocery store:
- Invest in better lighting — LED and fluorescent lights last for a long time and don’t consume much energy. Stay away from incandescent bulbs that are cheap, but don’t last long and cost a lot to run.
- Retrofit your refrigeration components — Outdated and malfunctioning refrigeration components are a common cause of higher energy consumption rates. You can address these issues by retrofitting old parts with newer, more energy-efficient parts, such as variable-frequency drives (VFDs) and electronically communicated motors (ECMs).
- Call an energy expert — An energy professional can visit your store to inspect your refrigeration, lighting and other energy-consuming components of your store. He or she can identify areas that are consuming too much energy and develop solutions to improve them.
Contact Energy Optimization for a more energy-efficient grocery store
Are you looking to lower the energy costs of your grocery store? Would you like to improve the lifespan of your equipment and help prevent your food from spoiling? One of our team members would love to visit your store and develop solutions for you. Contact us today for more information or to schedule a consultation.
