Energy Monitoring Case study - Shoe shop

A retail outlet with lighting and air-conditioning loads and is part of a national chain of shoe shops. The objective was to get employee buy-in for energy saving.

Step 1: Install an energy monitor.

The PowerEYE500 was chosen as the usage could be monitored remotely via the GSM link to the website.

“To monitor is to know, to know is to manage”.

Step 2: Identify energy usage.

Quickly identified that biggest wastage of energy was air-conditioning trying to warm or cool the retail unit when it was empty. This can be seen in the graph where there is a consumption of 5 kW during the midnight hours.

Step 3: Convert this into pounds and pence.

For example, the wasted power was costing the outlet £140 a month or £1680 a year.

Step 4: Implement corrective actions.

Program the air-conditioning correctly. Advise shop manager and staff not to change settings.

Step 5: Introduce competitive element.

Repeat this exercise in a number of other shops and use energy consumption as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI.)

Summary: This group is looking to save around £50,000 across all it’s branches by using this simple 5 step program over the next 2 years.