Improving your company’s energy efficiency doesn’t have to mean investing in expensive equipment. Just switching off lights when not in use, can save small businesses over a hundred pounds a year, according to E.ON.
In fact, some of the smallest actions that are simple and quick to implement, can help business owners make cost savings on their energy bills. And by engaging their staff in these measures, they can create a business culture of energy efficiency that will pay dividends in the long run.
The biggest users of energy in an office space are heating, lighting and air conditioning. Typically these three can account for as much as 75%-80% of the total energy costs, says Will Todd, managing director of Carbon Architecture.
“Make sure that your heating and air conditioning are not set to the same temperature and on at the same time; the setting on the two systems should be four degrees apart,” he says.
Thermostats should be set lower in store rooms and corridors than in offices, and single-glazed windows and door seals can easily be draught-proofed with thermal insulating tape.
It is also worth looking at the layout of your office area to see whether radiators are being blocked by furniture. If they are, move things around to let the heat circulate, says Liz Ainslie, environmental consultant at Hosking Associates.
Savings can be made on something as routine as the office tea run. It costs two or three pence to boil a kettle, so if members of staff are making cups of tea or coffee individually, over the course of a few months those costs will mount up. Encouraging communal break times rather than solo tea making will help to minimise them.
You may think the office is getting a thorough clean everyday, but a build up of dust and dirt in areas that your cleaning team don’t normally reach, for example, behind the fridge, can impact on energy bills.
Karthik Suresh, director of consultancy Ameresco says: “The coils at the back of a fridge can get dirty and blocked up with dust, reduced their efficiency. Pulling the fridge out and clearing the coils of any debris could save you up to a fifth of the energy used by the fridge.”
A good equipment maintenance routine; defrosting freezers, bleeding radiators in old buildings, and even dusting off light fixtures now and then to increase brightness, can all help reduce the energy being used.
Swapping to energy efficient light sources can also save a small business save money Sam Woodward, customer education leader, (Europe and Africa) at Lutron Electronics.
He says: “LED light sources are far more efficient at converting electricity into light, so they save energy and run cooler. Used in the correct setting, compared to halogen and fluorescent light sources, LED can provide significant energy-savings in both residential and commercial applications.”
Not all LED light bulbs are the same, so it is important to research the specifications provided by the lighting manufacturer, and check if the bulb’s lifetime figures are proven.
Woodward adds: “One of the main energy-efficiency benefits of LED is that a higher proportion of energy is produced in the form of light rather than heat. Given 95 per cent of electricity is typically heat; this is a significant factor in reducing energy usage.”
Where possible, switch off any kind of production equipment between shifts or during lunch breaks.
Reducing the time saving delay on your computers, removing or switching off any unused mobile phone chargers and turning off your Bluetooth and GPS when they’re not needed can also make small savings, that cumulatively can add up to a noticeable amount at the end of the years, says Julian Sutherland, technical director, at design engineering consultancy Atkins.
Small business owners tend to wear multiple hats, often taking on the roles of boss, accountant, sales and marketing, HR and IT manager. As a result they often find they have little time left to really focus on their energy use and find the best ways of managing it.
To help small business owners E.ON offers all its business customers an Energy Toolkit to give customers their own analysis complete with an online web portal showing energy consumption and costs as well as a series of energy saving actions that could have significant impact on a business’s bottom line.
The real key to making quick improvements to energy efficiency, says Ainslie, lies in educating your staff and communicating any energy saving measures clearly.
“Just by ensuring everyone knows how much the company spends on energy costs, plus giving a few tips to reduce the usage, can make a big difference.”
Content on this page is produced to a brief agreed with E.ON, sponsor of the Efficiency hub.
