A survey of lighting and energy performances in 71 retail stores in China.

In China, several investigations have pointed out lighting accounts for more than 40% energy consumptions in the sector of commercial buildings, especially for the shopping centers in large cities. As retail stores are generally the main functional area in a shopping centre, retail lighting consumes around 90% electricity relating to artificial lighting systems. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out a survey about lighting systems and relevant energy use in retail spaces in order to produce proper strategies for planning or future retrofitting projects.
This study presents a comprehensive survey of lighting and energy performances in 71 Chinese retail stores. Located at 32 large cites cross China, all the retail stores focus on the fashion sale activities. Each survey includes two components such as lighting systems and subjective investigation. Several important topics have been investigated in the first survey of lighting systems as the follows: light source and related properties; Luminaire and number; Lighting control models; Total power consumption of lighting; Lighting power density; Lighting cost of unit operating area; Horizontal illuminance and uniformity (circulation areas); Horizontal illuminance, vertical illuminance and uniformity (retail areas). At the same time, a subjective evaluation of lighting and visual performance was implemented in these retail stores, focusing on three topics: the adequacy and uniformity of the ambient lighting; the adequacy and uniformity of display lighting; the overall visual comfort of lighting systems. The achieved data have been statistically analyzed through a proper model using an advanced computer package SPSS.