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Rank: Horsham Forum Kingpin
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 08 September 2008
Posts: 78,
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| Have you ever noticed how many shops have their doors wide open all day, every day of the year? I asked the manager of a shop once why they did it, as the staff were complaining that they were freezing cold. The reply I received basically went along the lines of, “it is corporate policy to have the doors open all the time as it is more inviting to potential customers”. This manager told me that they were therefore not allowed to close the front doors no matter how cold it was outside. So instead of closing the doors, all these shops have “air curtain” heaters blowing down in the door way. A bit of investigation online has revealed to me how much electricity these heaters use. A typical heater uses 7.5 kilowatts! (7,500 watts) per hour. Now some sums.... 7.5x 8 = 60 kilowatts per day, which equals 480 kw for a week. Assuming these shops run these things for 30 weeks a year that is 14400 kw! Every kilowatt of electricity generates 0.461 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) so this one shop is responsible for 6638 kg of CO2! Thats nearly 7 tonnes! Multiply this by say 100 businesses around the town that leave their doors open and the potential is for well over 600 tonnes of CO2 pumped into the air just to keep some shop doors open in Horsham! The same argument also applies in the summer when shops have their air conditioning running and leave doors open. We may be a fairtrade town, but we are certainly not environmentally friendly!
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Rank: Horsham Forum Member
 
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 08 October 2008
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Yes it's a national scandal, But so is the average private home that causes 25% of of all co2 emissions in this country, Some of the homes i have surveyed have been really shocking in wastage like one recently that had two hot water cylinders charging up day and night with no cylinder thermostats fitted and no central heating except for one electric storage heater on a non economy tariff meter......shocking waste.
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Rank: Horsham Forum Kingpin
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 12 October 2008
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Rank: Horsham Forum Kingpin
Group: Moderators
Last Login: 12 October 2008
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| This is a real issue in the winter with heating and in the summer with air con. Perhaps we need to bring a bit of pressure to bear through the town centre management or traders guild. Town Centre Manager - if all of the shops in Horsham adopted the door-shut policy then it would become apparent that they are not all closed. The numbers higher up in the thread speak for themselves. It would be interesting to see the environmental policies of the major chains and those of the sole trader to see how open doors fit in
www.hiddenhorsham.co.uk 
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Rank: Horsham Forum Kingpin
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 08 September 2008
Posts: 78,
Visits: 123
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| I read in the WSCT this week that there is a proposal to ban plastic carrier bags from the town. How about banning open shop doors? The results would be instant and easily visible. At least plastic bags can be recycled. CO2 is a different matter.... Like M said, can we put pressure on the council to do something about it? My figures that I gave in the original post are conservative. A 7.5 kilowatt door heater was the lowest I could find, most were 9 Kw and over. Would a byelaw be able to cover something like this? Must admit I am not too hot on legal issues. As for open doors....If it is between 9.30 and 5.30 I generally assume shops are open regardless of their door status! Don't most people??
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Rank: Horsham Forum Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 29 March 2008
Posts: 27,
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| Don't get me started! Add, all offices, hospitals and hotels to the list for being ridiculously and unecessarily hot. Make them all stick to a nice 20 degrees and I'll have my £300 road tax back please
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