Energy efficiency has become the forefront of everybody’s mind, especially when it comes to new business plans. It is important for your business to become energy efficient to not only to reduce the amount of damage being done to the planet but to also reduce your overhead business costs efficiently.
When looking at your business strategies it’s easy to become consumed by what is going to make your business more money or allow you to grow. However, focusing on making changes for your business to become efficient could benefit your business more than you would think. Including a sustainability plan in your business strategy could decrease costs and pave the way to a new customer base. This will give you more money to invest back into your business and help it grow. Our energy experts have complied together some of their top energy efficiency tips to help you get your business on the path to sustainability.
Reduce peak demand
The first step in ensuring that your business is becoming more energy efficient is to report and manage your energy consumption. One way to do this is to have a smart meter installed. A smart meter is a device that shows your energy consumption and where this peaks during the day. By creating an energy report based on your smart meter reading you will be able see exactly where the most energy is being wasted . Once you know this you can then implement energy saving solutions to reduce how much energy is being used at these times.
Replace old equipment
A lot of older office equipment will most likely take up a lot more electricity to work. Office equipment can account for around 30-55% of energy usage in the workplace. Although this equipment is essential to be able to do your day-to-day tasks, there are ways you can reduce the amount of energy these devices use. One way could be to replace your current computers with power saving ones. In your office you can also encourage staff to be more energy efficient with office equipment. This includes making sure everything is switched off at the end of the day to ensure no energy is being wasted.
Heating and insulation
Another way to reduce energy waste in your office building could be to improve your current heating systems. If your building is currently running on a gas boiler you could consider switching this to a heat pump. A heat pump is an appliance that uses electricity to provide heating and cooling systems. They use a lot less energy to run than a gas boiler but provide the same outcome. To save even more energy you could also make sure that you are keeping on top of your building’s insulation, ensuring windows and doors are not faulty and letting heat out, the more insulation your building has in the winter, the less heat needed.
Energy efficient lighting
Lighting is one thing that could be making your energy consumption much higher than it needs to be. If you haven’t already consider switching the bulbs in your office to LED lighting, they use less than half the electricity that fluorescent lights do and they can last up to fifty times longer.
Generating your own energy
Another way you can save money on your energy bills could be to generate your own energy. Generating own energy can benefit your business in many ways. One way you could do this is to generate your own electricity through solar power. One of the biggest benefits of installing solar panels is it will lower your energy bills as you will need less electricity. Also, if you produce an excess amount of electricity, you could make money from it is by selling it back to the grid. This will not only benefit your energy prices, but you will also lower your businesses carbon emissions as you will be improving the green energy mix in the national grid.
