Should all supermarket fridges have doors?

I give up on my icon trouble. Perhaps it’s the weather, who knows?

The number of supporters is now approaching 27,000. Well done Jonathan for doing something positive.

I’d like to see the evidence that supports this. “Retailers in the United Kingdom unnecessarily waste huge amounts of energy on open fridges and freezers.“. Presumably Jonathan has it?

Well done Jonathan! Great to gather so much support in such little time 🙂

Malcolm – Jonathan has provided a useful link in his petition: https://www.coolproducts.eu/news/why-dont-supermarket-fridges-have-doors

The figures given in the 4 JRC report suggest that a saving of £2.3bn a year in the UK could be achieved by such energy efficiency. There are 87 000+ grocery stores in the UK, an average of £26 000 a year each. Does that seem possible? Is this all down to simply lack of doors? I would think that would be enough of a stimulus to stores to address the problem. I wonder what the projected energy saving in the UK would actually be (the data was EU wide) and what work our cost-conscious supermarkets will have done to save money. We could ask them?

I was under the impression that in modern, large volume, supermarkets and superstores sophisticated heating and ventilation plants were a comprehensive solution to maintaining a balanced temperature in different areas, so that the heat from refrigeration and air conditioning or the escape of cold air from open cabinets were part of the mix both for economy and for energy conservation. I should be interested to know if this is correct.

Vertical chiller cabinets generally have blinds that are pulled down when the store closes but their thermal insulation properties are not so good as doors. Frozen food is generally already either in deep cabinets or behind spring-loaded doors.

Which is why Id like the supermarkets to be asked rather than just jumping to conclusions. All too easy to demonise someone in the absence of their input.

It is referred to as HVAC – heating, ventilation and air conditioning, so a search for supermarket HVAC will turn up plenty of reading material.

There are ways of reducing the energy consumption of open refrigeration cabinets but doors do seem the best option. With hinged opening doors there is a small risk of injury. Sliding doors are probably safer but opening one will mean that the one next door cannot be opened and there is more risk of the door being left open by shoppers.

HVAC will take account of all loads, throughout the year, including that from refrigeration devices but I doubt it will directly address the devices themselves. The cost of energy in maintaining the correct store environment will be substantial and the efficiency of all contributors will be of direct concern to the stores’ managers. Personally, I doubt it is a “wasteful” practice in view of the energy involved but as stores will have professional building services engineers looking after their pennies I’d like to see what they have to say.

It makes sense for deep freezer cabinets to have lids that can be kept closed and opened by the customer when required [Farm Foods used to use this method and might still do so but we don’t have one near us]. Even if they are generally left open during shopping hours they can be closed when the store closes.

Sliding doors seem to create problems due to misuse or rough handling. There is a local Tesco near us and I sometimes have to carry out adjustments to get the sliding door back to the closed position. The British have lost the art of being gentle with mechanical things and use too much force. The ice cream compartment seems to suffer the most.