8 Effective Business Energy Saving Tips
Are you looking for the best strategies to save energy for your business and maximize profit? In this article, we shared some effective business energy saving tips startups can implement to reduce energy consumption.
1. Assess When You Heat Your Premises
Think about when you use gas and electricity most at your business and weigh up whether heating your premises at those specific times is really necessary.
Business owners often pay a standard tariff for heating their premises but find that the building is still heated overnight or when the rooms are empty. This can be a huge waste of money and you could be saving hours of energy if you only heat the building during daytime or when the rooms are being used. If you have shift workers in the building and need to heat the building overnight, then it might be worth considering a time of use tariff that offers cheaper rates at certain times.
Turning down your heating by 1 degree is another simple but effective business energy saving tip. You likely won’t even notice this small difference in temperature, but what you will notice instead is a reduction in your business energy bills as a result.
Simply taking your thermostat down a notch can be a quick way to start saving quickly. It is a small action that only takes seconds to carry out and has the potential to reduce your energy bills by as much as 10 percent.
2. Switch Off Appliances
Have you noticed that you usually leave appliances on standby as opposed to completely switching them off? We have all done it, whether on purpose or accidentally, and it hardly seems like a big deal.
One thing you might not realize is that appliances left on standby are still using energy. If you are not even using the appliance, then you are essentially wasting both money and energy – money that you could be using to make your business better.
Switching off appliances after you are finished with them can be a great way to cut your electricity and gas costs. Next time you are finished working, ensure that you turn off your computer monitors, printers, and any other unused appliances.
3. Take Note of the Weather
Taking a closer look at your business thermostats and adjusting them according to the outside weather conditions is another way to save energy. If it is a hot day and rooms don’t have to be heated, turn down the thermostat to start saving money in no time.
Business and domestic energy usage typically decrease during the summer months. The reason for this is that it is warmer and there’s less need for the heating to be on throughout the day. If you are a bit more conscious of the weather outside and adjust the thermostat accordingly, you will be more cost-efficient.
4. Install a Smart Meter
Josco Energy company advises that smart meters can be a great tool for keeping control over your business energy bills, largely because it allows you to see exactly where your electricity and gas is being used.
A smart meter lets you see exactly how much the energy you use is costing you, which means that, as a result, you are able to curb your consumption. For information on how a smart meter can aid your business’s electricity and gas savings, speak to an expert.
5. Be Mindful of Water Costs
140°F (60°C) is the optimum temperature for hot water, so if you notice that you are running water hotter than that, several issues may arise.
For starters, running water hotter than 140°F (60°C) can potentially be rather dangerous for you, your employees or anybody using the supply – a trip to the emergency room to treat scalds is not good for anyone. Besides injuries, it could leave you exposed to a costly business insurance claim.
You will also be wasting energy – 140°F (60°C) gets the job done and you can simultaneously slice your business energy bills. You may even consider installing touch-free taps in bathrooms to ensure more efficient water usage.
6. Fit Light Sensor or Turn Off Lights When Not in Use
Switching off lights whenever you leave a room is another easy way to save energy. It might seem like such an obvious tip, but sometimes we never register that leaving lights on can cause the energy bills to surge higher.
We tend to easily forget about the little things. Simply advising your employees to turn the lights off when they leave an empty room or before going home at the end of the day makes all the difference.
You can also take advantage of natural light when it is daytime, if it is a bright, sunny morning or afternoon and the overhead office lights are not really making too much of a difference, you can pull back the blinds and make full use of the sunlight.
Businesses can also install light sensors in areas such as bathrooms and storerooms since they are places where people are not going to be all day.
7. Encourage Employees to Be Self-Aware
Reducing our usage of energy is something that we need to think about in the short and long term. It not only reduces the harmful effects of high energy consumption in the world, but it is also cost-effective to be mindful of what you are spending and where.
Energy Live News published a study claiming that 68 percent of employees now think about their usage of energy more mindfully at work. Still, there’s work to be done, which is why you need to talk to staff about energy saving initiatives and explain the importance of it all. You could think about rewards and incentives or words of encouragement to spur them on to get really involved.
8. Draught-Proof Your Building
If you are constantly working on making sure that your premises are properly insulated, you will find your business less in need of expensive heating costs. A cheap yet effective way to save money on electric and gas bills is to draught-proof your windows and doors since it limits the amount of heat that can escape and prevents cold air from getting in.
Simple changes like the aforementioned examples and inspecting your premises checking for any cracks or gaps where draughts could come through will make all the difference and it will be reflected in your monthly business gas and electricity bills.
