Each year supermarkets consume about 55 billion kWh of the United States' electrical energy. Refrigeration and air conditioning can contribute up to 75percent of this usage. A large portion of this energy is utilized to satisfy the cooling load of refrigerated display cases. Furthermore, the cooling load of display cases is strongly dependent on the store's relative humidity. While transferring the moisture load from refrigerated fixtures to the air conditioning system can save energy, the additional energy cost of dehumidification must be closely evalauted. A reliable approach to quantifying the adverse impact of the relative humidity on the nergy use of the refrigerated display cases can assist supermarket operators in performing such evaluations. Additionally, it can provide a robust premise to better evaluate the impact of energy efficiency opportunities on the defrost and anti-condensate energy and demand savings.
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