Title 24 Requirements for Convenience Stores

Below 8,000 square feet, refrigeration is handled elsewhere

Section 120.6(b) applies to retail food or beverage stores with 8,000 square feet or more of conditioned floor area that use refrigerated display cases or walk-in coolers or freezers. The measure is the store's conditioned area, not its refrigerated area, and a store below the line is outside the section.

Walk-ins follow the same logic. Refrigerated spaces under 3,000 square feet meet the Title 20 appliance efficiency regulations for walk-in coolers and freezers rather than Part 6, and lighting inside refrigerated cases under 3,000 square feet is likewise left to Title 20 and excluded from the indoor lighting calculation.

Which sales category the floor falls in

Table 140.6-C carries separate allowances for grocery sales and retail merchandise sales, and the definitions decide between them. Grocery sales is a room whose primary purpose is selling foodstuffs that need further preparation before they are eaten; retail merchandise sales is a room whose primary activity is selling merchandise. A store selling mostly packaged drinks and ready-to-eat food has to document which description fits rather than assume the grocery category because it sells food.

A heat pump by default

On the prescriptive path, a single-zone direct-expansion system up to 240,000 Btu/hr serving retail or grocery space must be a heat pump in climate zones 2 through 15. In zones 1 and 16 it is an air conditioner with furnace below 65,000 Btu/hr of cooling, and a dual-fuel heat pump at or above it. The performance path can depart from that, but it sets the budget the design is measured against.

The forecourt

A store selling fuel is a vehicle service station for outdoor lighting, and Table 140.7-B gives it three allowances of its own: one per uncovered fuel dispenser, for luminaires within two mounting heights of it; one for the area inside the canopy drip line, for luminaires under the canopy; and one for the illuminated hardscape outside the canopy and the building. None applies in lighting zone 0. Canopy and forecourt luminaires mounted 24 feet or lower also need motion sensing.

Where to go deeper

A store that reaches 8,000 square feet moves into the commercial refrigeration requirements, and the grocery store picture applies instead. Illuminated fascia and pole signs are documented separately under sign lighting.

Common Title 24 Questions

1. Title 24 requirements for office buildings
2. Title 24 requirements for retail stores
3. Title 24 requirements for restaurants
4. Title 24 requirements for commercial kitchens
5. Title 24 requirements for warehouses
6. Title 24 requirements for grocery stores