Five Tips for Reducing Your Business’s Energy Costs

Environmental issues are never far from today’s news headlines and at a time of global recession, rising energy prices and economic hardship it is important for businesses to constantly be aware of where they are spending money and more importantly, where they are potentially wasting money. It is also important to know what changes they can easily make that will impact both on the bank balance and the environment.

Here are some tips and suggestions that could help businesses cut their energy outgoings

One of the first things you could think about is calling on the services of a specialist energy consultant to take a look at your business and the details of your energy bills in order to get an expert overview of where you can make savings and what new technologies are available on the market that would be best suited to your needs.

Smart meters have become increasingly commonplace in the homes and businesses of those looking for more real time information regarding energy usage. Smart meters are essentially the next generation of gas and electricity meters and are able to provide both customers and energy companies with more accurate and detailed information about the level of energy consumption within a building. They offer the ability to display real time information through a two way communication link with the supplier and for those customers who have a flexible tariff this offers the ability to measure consumption over set time periods thus giving improved accurate readings and in forecasting demand.

Energy saving light bulbs are common place these days and very much widely available especially for domestic use. However, figures for lighting in commercial or retail premises show that the electricity used in public sector buildings accounts for 43% of the UK’s electricity usage, a figure that can rise to 70% in some retail environments.  By simply changing the lighting used great energy savings can be made. You may also want to consider installing other energy saving devices such as PIR detectors which turn lights off in areas where there has been no movement for a while.

One of the main areas a business can help to reduce their energy costs in is through the conservation of the heating they already have by minimising heat loss wastage. This can be achieved through improved building insulation, the upgrade old windows to modern energy efficient models and also by identifying those areas where the greatest amount of heat loss is going to occur, especially in industrial situations where cold storage areas or large warehouse openings are commonplace. In these situations the simple installation of PVC Strip Curtains can dramatically help to reduce the amount of heat loss and make energy savings by as much as 35-50%.

Finally, it sometimes pays to think outside the box and look into the installation of other sources of alternative and renewable energy’s such as solar power or heat pumps. Solar panels are not a new idea and can easily be mounted on roofs while there are several commercial heat pump technologies available which extract heat from the earth’s natural reserves deep within the ground, and convert this into usable energy to provide heating or cooling to a building.

It is important to remember that by making small changes in either a commercial or domestic situations you can benefit greatly from the financial or environment effects that these changes bring.