Electricity Use At The Market Mall

Electric Panels

Electrical contracting companies like 110220v.com are often responsible for wiring whole malls. Have you ever thought about the electricity use at the Market SMP? The Market at Santa Monica Place is a mall that takes electricity efficiency very seriously.

Some malls are unbelievably hungry when it comes to power.  The Siam Paragon in Thailand for example uses about 120 Gigawatts of electricity annually. This is twice as much as the entire Mae Hong Son province of 250,000 people.

As with any mall there are a variety of electricity uses here at Santa Monica mall. These include:

  • Commercial Kitchens,
  • Walk Lighting
  • Dining Lighting
  • Party Lighting
  • Appliances

So what can be done to become more efficient energy users at malls?

1. Refrigerators. In the normal residential household the fridge uses about %20 of the monthly electricity. We can make improve the efficiency by making sure our commercial fridges are sealed tightly and the temperature is set not to cold and not too warm, but just right.

2. Dishwasher.  Run the dishwashers when full only. Have dishwashers installed that have an energy saving feature. This feature often lets the dishes “air” dry instead of using heat. This can reduce electricity use by 20%.

3. Mall Heating.  Make sure the thermostats are set for “comfortable” and not “luxury”.

4. Fluorescent lighting. Fluorescent lights use only 25% of the electricity that incandescent lighting uses. As an added bonus fluorescent lighting will last 8-12 times longer than the traditional light bulb.

5. Weatherize the mall. Use weather stripping and caulk to make sure that ALL windows and doors are sealed.  Think about all the electricity that is being wasted when the mall closes for the night and the windows and doors aren’t sealed.

6. Measure, constantly. With a large concern such as a mall, it is very important that you can see your electricity usage at a quick glance. Once you have these metrics in place, it becomes much easier to identify when anomalies are causing your usage to go up.

7. Install energy efficient air filters. If you can install centrally located air filters, you’ll remove the need for distributed pre-filters to be replaced each year.

8. Automation. If your lights, are turned off and on by automated sensors you’ll quickly recoup the sensor costs in reduced energy usage.

9. Hire the best electricians.  110220v.com is a good example of an electrical contractor that knows how to create energy efficient plans. They didn’t do our electricity. (Disclosure, they did not do the Market SMP electricity).

10. Install solar panels. Yes the worlds hottest trend CAN be applied to malls.  Numerous malls have installed solar panels and they are working wonderfully.

11. Finally, see this unique green electricity solution that is currently being used in England. Its called “PaveGen“.  When the copious mall shoppers step on the PaveGen tile, it generates energy that is transferred to a battery or appliances. So actually all the foot traffic of the mall is transformed into electricity!

We are extremely proud that there are so many ways to create electric savings these days. It’s a really exciting time to be in the mall business and we are enthusiastically promoting “Green” mall energy!