saving energy

[mrsbrown]

When we design retail spaces we typically expect that the store will have a 20% occupancy, but that the lighting energy to the store will be designed to operate at 100% during opening hours.  Wouldn't it be good if we could better match the number of people in a supermarket to the energy being provided to keep the store open?

I imagine that going to the supermarket could be a bit like riding in the Ghost Train at Luna Park.  As you enter each section, it could light up. And you would have to wait until there are enough people to justify you starting the journey. 

Although maybe the realistic version of that is using smaller stores for each of the supermarket sections - butcher, dry goods, fruiterer, deli etc.  I wonder what's more energy efficient? The wholly lit supermarket behemoth, or multiple small stores that cover all of the stuff you buy at the supermarket?

Comments

[hnpcc]

I wonder if the way that supermarkets are lit could be changed too. When they have the quieter, less bright periods aimed at people with sensory issues (or, you know, the parents of people with sensory issues!) I find that it's still bright enough for me to see easily - I do wonder how people with vision issues find it though. Maybe shelving specific additional lighting?

I do try and buy as much as possible from the local shops (I'm lucky in that we have a butcher, a fruit shop and two bakers, although at the moment because of the Christmas/New Year/January period we actually only have a fruit shop and a baker) but I still find myself in the local supermarkets a lot. I'd say it's probably as energy efficient for me in that I tend to either walk to the local shops (small shop - up to three bags) or drive to the supermarket car park (large shop) and then walk to and from the local shops from there (they're all within about 500m of each other.) Just from an airconditioning point of view I wonder about whether cooling/heating multiple smaller spaces is more efficient than the much larger open space of a supermarket, particularly a chain one.

Side note 1: I really want someone to develop solar panel shelters in supermarket car parks, particularly in places like Mildura where parking in the shade is both essential and very desirable, and where solar energy should be able to be used more often. But also at places like the top levels at Southland.

Side note 2: The lights aren't actually an issue for my child, it's the damn music that he can't turn off. In that our local supermarket is actually better because it's quieter all the time. Also they don't have self-checkouts so it's easier to manage with a child who is often distracted and wants to dash off to somewhere, and they like Michael. Also they find it funny that I will buy 250g of twiggy sticks and ask for one to be taken out so he can munch it on our way around.

Side note 3: our newsagent closed last week. I am very sad about this, while simultaneously completely understanding why.

[catsidhe]

The ghost train experience, I suspect, would be rejected because psychology: an area with the lighting lowered looks like it's closed, and people will tend to think they shouldn't enter. Moreover, while your typical large supermarket might have a relatively small occupancy in terms of absolute numbers, for most of the day that occupancy is randomly and evenly spread through the whole space and moving quickly. You wouldn't be able to have any sort of meaningful guiding through the space because shops just don't work like that. There's always going to be people remembering what they need to buy in the pessimal order, taking the longest path back and forth across the length of the supermarket. (Yes, I am one of those people.)

I would suggest the same thing I suggest for my brightly and evenly floodlit open plan office: turn off the goddamned floodlighting! Some bright spark looked at the lighting standards, looked at the lighting level for close detailed work, and decided to save time by making everything at that level. I do not need to see the corridors at the same brightness level as the shelves, let alone the ceiling.

Drop the general lighting lots and lots. Have brighter LED area lighting directed to the shelves, so that you can see what's there, and spots on signs which need attention drawn to them. (Double benefit, those spotlit signs stand out even if they're subtle, you don't need to make the signs SCREAM AT YOU to get your attention over all the other visual noise.) I have been begging for lower general light levels in this building since we moved in, to no avail. Apparently, it wasn't designed to be able to do that, and desk lamps and similar task lighting would ruin the architect's vision or something.

If we could get them to just turn off the damned muzak permanently as well, not just for an hour in the midmorning once every fortnight, that'd be awesome. People don't realise how loud supermarkets are, even while they're actively shouting at you about how they can't hear anything. It doesn't help that they're so determined not to offend anyone by their music choices that the selection is offensively inoffensive. </rant>

[motg]

I'd visit if it were like the Ghost Train! It sounds marvellous!