Lighting
Eliminate unneeded lights. More light isn’t necessarily better. It’s important to create contrast and focus areas to capture shoppers’ attention.

Replace incandescent bulbs with ENERGY STAR® compact fluorescent lights.

Learn more about lighting.

Refrigeration
Keep air curtain flow paths clear. Clean the honeycomb grilles and keep the return-air grilles open and free of product, labels, price tags, etc.

Consider installing vending machine controllers on cold drink machines. These can cut each machine’s annual electric bill 30 to 50 percent.

Maintain strip curtains, door closers and door gaskets on coolers, freezers and cases. Minimize leaks from your cases. Why pay twice to keep your product cold and your floors comfortable?

Replace older shaded pole evaporator fan motors. Newer and more efficient motors and controllers can provide a quick payback.

Learn more about refrigeration.

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning
Implement a thermostat set-point policy and check thermostats to ensure they’re still programmed properly. Power outages, maintenance work, a low battery and unauthorized users may alter programming, which can undermine coordinated heating and cooling controls.

Keep rear access doors closed when not in use. When left open unnecessarily, these can pull outside air through the store, potentially boosting energy use for heating, cooling and refrigeration.

Learn more about heating and cooling.

Employee involvement
Create and implement an energy awareness program. Train staff to load coolers and freezers properly to ensure optimal airflow. This will let cooled air circulate properly — protecting your product and your customers’ safety, and saving you a bundle.

Establish an “energy team” to identify and recommend opportunities to save energy. Increased energy awareness can be a powerful tool to generate new ideas and opportunities for savings.

How PGE can help
Check out the PGE class schedule to take advantage of a variety of courses to enhance business practices and get expert advice on how to save energy and money.

Contact the PGE Business Services team to arrange for a free PGE energy-efficiency consultation. This process can often be quickly accomplished over the phone or via e-mail. We can also provide a third-party technical review of improvements you are considering.

Use PGE’s energy monitoring services to track your energy use and bills for a clear picture of where your dollars are going and where you can save. This includes monthly, daily and customer reporting options that help you pinpoint problems and identify key opportunities for improving energy-efficiency.

For outdoor lighting, use photosensors or timers and switch to high-pressure sodium, pulse-start metal halide or induction (QL) lamps. PGE lighting services offers many options.