13 tips to reduce your business energy costs
Finding ways to reduce your business’s energy consumption is not only beneficial to the planet’s resources but it makes a great deal of financial sense and it can also help you to promote your business and attract customers who like the idea of supporting a business that prioritises caring about business energy usage and the environment.
For an SME or a medium-sized business, business energy costs amount to a huge proportion of the business’s overheads. The Department of Energy and Climate Change estimates that the average SME could reduce its energy bills by 18pc to 25pc a year by installing energy efficiency measures with an average payback of less than 18 months.
You have a considerable amount of control over your energy bills. With a little effort, focus and cooperation from your team, you can reduce your business’s energy bills massively without impacting your business operations.
Business energy saving tips
Here are 13 simple ways you can make your business more energy-efficient:
- Travel – it’s something that shouldn’t be overlooked and is a very important aspect of a business’s energy consumption and fuel bills. A fifth of UK carbon emissions come from transport. Therefore, developing a sustainable travel policy can bring huge environmental benefits and cost savings. Since the pandemic, many companies are more open to doing meetings virtually, which will help to reduce unnecessary journeys. Choosing the most efficient vehicles and driving them efficiently can also help reduce your business travel costs and can reduce emissions. Electric vehicles are an amazing way to reduce carbon emissions and air pollution and can be cheaper to run in the right circumstances.
- Unplug/switch off electrical equipment – at the end of the day, you can do this when they are not in use and everyone’s left the office. This includes things like vending machines, office equipment, microwaves, kettles, and other equipment your business uses.
- Use energy-saving features and active sleep-mode features wherever possible, also do not use screensavers and try to only print off documents when it’s absolutely necessary.
- Remember to switch off lights in areas not in use – you could look at installing motion sensors to automate when lighting is switched on and off
- Turning down the heating – you don’t want to make it too cold for your staff, customers or visitors, but you should be able to turn the heating down whilst maintaining comfort levels. For example, dropping it by just a few degrees in temperature could reduce your energy bills by over 10%. It’s important to remember not to open windows whilst the heating or air conditioning is on.
- Turning off the heating – when no one is in, it’s important to remember to turn it off. Heating rooms and buildings that are unoccupied are throwing money away.
- Improve your buildings energy efficiency – there are many ways you can achieve this. From getting a programmable thermostat, installing insulation, changing to energy-efficient lighting or eliminating drafts. They’re simple things you can do such as checking that radiators and other sources of heat are not blocked from equipment or office furniture.
- Natural light – use as much natural light as possible, open blinds fully instead of using lights. Try to make sure that your windows and skylights are kept clean to ensure they let in as much light as possible.
- Replace old equipment – removing old equipment and replacing it with modern, energy-efficient equipment will cut costs on your energy bills, despite the initial cost you will save money over time.
- Allow your employees to work from home on certain days a week – before the pandemic, most companies would have raised an eyebrow at this, but since the pandemic, more companies will be more open to allowing workers to work from home. If there are fewer employees on the premises, you will use less energy. There’s so much technology to keep employees connected and productive. Not only will it reduce your energy bills, but it will give your workers a better work-life balance.
- Get your employees involved – you can do this by chatting about energy usage and encouraging them to take proactive and regular steps to minimise energy consumption. If your staff by in, it will make life much easier by reducing energy costs.
- Submit regular meter readings to your supplier – this ensures bills are based on your actual usage rather than estimates.
- Get your boilers and HVAC systems serviced regularly – to ensure they are running efficiently and safely.
Most of the tips in this list will apply to all businesses and they are easy and simple to implement. The result will be lower energy bills. For further advice, you can check out the Carbon Trust’s website.
Get in touch
At Thermatic, our virtual energy manager solutions work to keep your eyes on your estate 24/7, 365 days a year. You benefit from reduced operational costs by having dedicated in-house resources, allowing more time for actioning reduction initiatives, rather than reporting and analysing the granular detail.
You can call us on 0161 543 4131 or drop us an email: info@thermaticenergy.theauditlab.com
