Frozen food retail: Measuring and modelling energy use and space environmental systems in an operational supermarket

Zoi Mylona,Maria Kolokotroni,Savvas A Tassou

doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.03.049

Zoi Mylona, Maria Kolokotroni + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.03.049

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Abstract

Energy use intensity in supermarkets is high compared to retail buildings due to the refrigeration needed for the preservation of chilled and frozen products. The modelling of their energy use and environmental conditions is difficult due to the interdependence of their subsystems such as refrigeration, heating/cooling, ventilation, lighting and requirements of products, store operation schedule and transient occupancy patterns.This paper reports the development of an EnergyPlus model calibrated with operational data for a frozen food supermarket in the UK. The developed model can predict hourly energy use with an average error of 2kWh. The paper also presents monitored operational data indicating that energy use intensity is near the upper range of other supermarkets due to increased refrigeration load of 60% compared to 40% of typical supermarket and operation of fans because of required high ventilation rates. Environmental conditions were maintained within comfort requirements for staff and customers because closed frozen food cabinets are used. The developed model was used to investigate the interaction between the subsystems and building envelope to reduce energy use; a significant interdependence was found with the highest energy reduction (4%) when the HVAC is operating during trading hours only.

Highlights

The frozen food market and retail/consumption is reported to be on the increase during the last decade
It can be seen that the refrigeration system is responsible for most (60%) of the energy use followed by the HVAC (26%) system, lighting (8%) and electrical equipment (6%)
These results differ from typical supermarket sub-system breakdown because refrigeration energy is higher by about 10–20% which leads to higher energy use than typical supermarkets (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

The frozen food market and retail/consumption is reported to be on the increase during the last decade. The global market was valued at USD 241.72 billion in 2014 and is projected to USD 307.33 billion by 2020. This is due to increasing standard of living and lifestyle changes with less time to cook. Europe was the largest regional frozen food market in 2013 and accounted for 38.9% of total market revenue [1]. UK represents Europe’s largest market for chilled prepare foods [2] with the frozen food market to perform well over the retail sector [3]. Consumer lifestyle impacts on this growth with frozen ready meals being the leading product consumed accounting for over 35% of total market. One explanation for consumer preference is the reduced preservative levels in frozen meals compared with chilled while the economic recession impacts on careful shopping with shoppers opting more for frozen foods [4,5]

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