Energy-wasting High Street shops are as hot as the tropics in a bid to lure Christmas spenders

By Sean Poulter for the Daily Mail
Updated: 03:48 EST, 10 December 2009

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High street stores are making their aisles as hot as tropical holiday spots in an astonishing waste of energy and cash.

Some leading chains keep their stores above 80f - and are throwing their doors wide open all day.

The net effect is that millions of pounds are being wasted heating the winter air outside and stores are generating an enormous carbon footprint.

At the same time many staff and shoppers are becoming hot and bothered in the sweltering heat as they hunt for Christmas bargains.

In an era where government ministers and green campaigners frown on families for daring to use patio heaters, the scale of energy waste is staggering.

A survey of the major chains on Oxford Street found the flagship Topshop branch, where the doors are kept open, had a temperature of 80.9F or 27.2C.

That is on a par with tropical Bali and hotter than Jamaica, Sydney and Tenerife, where many Britons head for their winter sun.

Others found with temperatures above 77F(25C) included Bodyshop, Debenhams, Esprit, HMV, Clinton Cards, Boots and Monsoon.

Only Debenhams kept its doors to the street closed. The research was carried out by the price comparison website Make it Cheaper, which found the average shop temperature was 74.5F or 23.6C.

That is more than ten degrees warmer than the ideal ambient shopping temperature of 64.4F or18C, as recommended by the Chartered Institute for Building Services Engineers.

Just six shops out of more than 100 surveyed had their doors closed at a time when the outside temperature was close to freezing.

The managing director of Make it Cheaper, Jonathan Elliott, said: 'Retailers wanting to out-do each other in creating the most enticing Christmas shopping experiences are wasting huge amounts of energy.

'Even in hard times, this is the stage of the year when retailers literally throw caution to the wind, no matter how Arctic it is, opening their doors - wide open in most cases - and crank up the heating. Throw extra lights into the equation and extended opening hours, and you have exceptionally heavy business electricity consumption for the entire Christmas season.'

Professor Ken Parsons, who is head of Loughborough University's Human Thermal Environments Laboratory, said shops turn up the heat to cash in from 'thermal pleasure'.

He said: 'Why do the shops maintain high temperatures in the winter? It may be because the workers wish to wear light fashionable clothing. It may also be to provide what is called "thermal pleasure" to customers.

'Thermal pleasure is a transient phenomenon felt when a person moves into a cold environment when too hot or into a warm environment when too cold. In the winter the first impression for the shopper who may be generally cold or have cold skin on the hands and face, will be the pleasure of moving to a warm, and hence welcoming environment.'

But he warned: 'After 20 minutes or so, this affect will wear off and unless clothing is reduced the customer may well become unpleasantly hot and even sticky.

'Moving out into the cold will then be a pleasure. The British Retail Consortium's business environment director, Tom Ironside, said: 'Retailers want to minimise energy waste as it leads to environmental and financial costs.

'Individual shops make store temperature judgments based on a range of factors, including customer and staff comfort as well as product requirements.'