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Cost of staying cool on the high street

High street retailers have been accused of squandering energy on keeping their stores cooler than necessary during the recent heatwave.

A third of high street chains are wasting huge amounts of energy by operating their air conditioning below the recommended summer store temperature of 24 degrees Celsius, Make It Cheaper, the business price comparison service has uncovered.

To make matters worse, of all the stores measured in the experiment, which took place on a sweltering July day, only one kept its doors closed to prevent the cool air escaping.

Armed with thermal imaging cameras capturing temperatures at shop entrances, the Make It Cheaper team researched retailer habits on London's Oxford Street, when the outside temperature in the South East reached a sizzling 28.4 degrees Celsius. The research shows that retailers are effectively burning millions of pounds by blasting up their air conditioning to create a pleasant shopping environment and yet leaving their doors wide open.

The research revealed that just one store - Debenhams - kept its doors closed to prevent the cool air escaping.

"Shopkeepers in New York get fined 400 dollars by the city council if they have their doors open with the air con on because it burns so much more energy to cool a shop that it does to keep it warm," commented managing director of Make It Cheaper Jonathan Elliot. "This can only be a taste of things to come when the government's CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme kicks in over here and forces retailers to re-think how they use energy in their stores."

Date Posted: 13 July

September/October 2010
issue 61
available now