FDA’s Impact of Lower Food Temperature on Utility Costs

Supermarkets’ annual electric utility costs depend heavily on the energy usage of their refrigeration systems.  In fact, over 50 percent of the energy costs are due to the refrigeration systems.  With the 1993 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommendation that supermarkets lower the temperature of meat, poultry, fish, deli, dairy, and cut produce from 45ºF to 41ºF, the potential for an increase in utility costs is of primary business importance to supermarket operators.

To better understand the implications of the FDA’s recommendations on supermarket electric utility costs, Southern California Edison (SCE) performed a detailed building energy computer simulation of a typical full-service supermarket.

The engineers at SCE’s Refrigeration Technology and Test Center (RTTC) used a sophisticated computer simulation program (DOE-2.2) to model a typical supermarket in Southern California. The supermarket model was approximately 32,000 square feet, operating 24 hours a day, seven day a week. In the model, 68 percent of the total annual electric consumption can be attributed to the refrigeration systems, with only 8 percent to heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and 23 percent to lighting. The FDA’s four-degree reduction in food storage temperature increased the operational energy costs of the facility by 7% per square-foot per year using 10% per kWh.