As a small business owner, reducing energy bills could go a long way. However, the million-dollar question is, how can you achieve this? Below is a list of tips provided to us by our energy-efficient experts. The tips will help you reduce the energy bill by up to 10%.
1) Identify Your Business Energy Consumption and Wastage
The best way to do this is by investing in smart meters. That is because it could be difficult to read a regular meter or identify the most energy you use and there it is being wasted. The new type of energy meter offers more control. Sign up for Josco commercial energy plan.
You will get to know how much you are spending on your business on energy throughout the day. This will give you a better understanding of what you can do to adjust energy consumption on heavy tasks and trim waste energy. Getting an accurate bill is much better rather than estimating. This will eliminate the hassle and time to do manual meter reading.
2) Invest In Energy Efficient Office Lighting
The fact is that keeping the lights on in a business is not cheap. According to research, businesses spend up to 40% of their energy on office lighting alone. For this reason, if you are smart in the way you use lighting, you could save a lot. As such, consider swapping out incandescent filaments or halogen bulbs with modern LEDs.
Although the cost of replacing all the lighting in your office could be high, you will enjoy the benefits in the long run. At the same time, ask your employees to turn off the lights when they are not in the room. This may sound obvious, but you will be surprised by how many people do not take this into account.
To be on the safe side, consider investing in motion light sensor systems in your toilets and corridors. You could also consider taking advantage of natural light.
3) Turn Down the Heat
Another way to save money on energy bills is by using your indoor climate control wisely. For example, did you know that if you leave your AC running the whole day during the summer months, it will add up to about 30% to your energy bill? If you keep the office warm over the winter will increase the energy cost by 8%.
This is why it is wise to use indoor climate control wisely. Also, do not forget to clean the air filters, fans, and vents of your unit. If the radiators are blocked with furniture, workbench, or anything of that sort, consider moving them away.
4) Turning Off Unused Office Electricals and Electronics
Laptops use less energy compared to desktops. However, they still consume energy. This is why it is wise to encourage your employees to turn off these devices when they are not using them or off work. According to research, these devices can consume up to £35 a year when they are idle. Turning off the computer is better than leaving them in standby mode.
Unplug printers, chargers, and another office tech when they are not being used. Note: the LED light on a used charger or TV Consumes energy. Being a green business will help you improve your reputation online
5) Reduce Cost in The Office Kitchen
There is a lot you can do in your office kitchen that will help you save money. A majority of people already know to boil as much water they need in the kettle for their Cuppa. By applying the tips below, you will be able to save even more.
- Encourage the staff to wait until the dishwasher is full before switching it on
- After using the microwave, switch it off at the plug.
- If your business prepare food for customers, consider switching off backup fryers and the oven during quieter production times.
- Ensure the oven door fits in tightly.
- Keep the freezer and fridge running efficiently. You can do this by ensuring it is clean and there is enough space to reduce overheating.
- Preheat cooking equipment based on the recommended settings by the manufacturer
- To cook quicker and reduce heat loss, keep pots covered.
- Invest in insulated cooking equipment
6) Check Your Workshop Floor
Does your business have a workshop area? If so, there are recommendations you should consider: watch out, shift, and turn down.
Begin by watching out for leaks. Remember, even if your pipe has a small hole, it will waste a lot of steam. If you find any leakage, consider repairing it immediately. Also, consider turning down the settings on some equipment. Remember, a slight reduction can make a huge difference in energy efficiency without noticing any noticeable effect on performance.
7) Avoid Energy Waste at All Time
Having a welcoming front is very important for all businesses. It does not matter if it is a convenience store or a boutique, storefronts help advertise a business and are attractive to customers. However, for a storefront to be attractive, one has to think about the ambiance. As such, you have to consider also about saving energy. Below are a few tips that will help you save energy while customers are shopping.
- Try positioning chilled cabinets away from external doors.
- Install pull-down blinds. That is because they play a huge role in helping maintain internal climate temperature. Furthermore, it does boost the level of security.
- Keep the exterior door closed as much as possible. Never turn up the AC and leave the door open.
- Consider installing evaporative condensers rather than air-cooled condensers to remove the heat. The evaporative condensers use wet filters to increase the ability to remove heat.
NOTE: rather than using a water cooler and kettle, use a water machine to provide hot and cold water such as WaterBar from Virgin Pure. Taking this action will not only reduce the number of machines using electricity.
8) Talk to Your Team to Help You Save
All the tips in this short document are more valuable if the whole team is working with you. for this reason, since you now know who to save money on energy, it would be wise to include the whole team and teach them to follow your lead. How can you achieve this? Well:
- Begin by reminding your team constantly. Many businesses will put up reminding posters describing how employees can save energy and the reason it is important to the business. Doing this will help your employees maintain the same level as you.
- Consider taking regular walkthroughs of your office to check on everything. Do not forget to check all equipment and try to spot any wastage.
- Consider having monthly management meetings to share progress and pitch new ideas.
During the cold months, encourage your staff to wear appropriate for the weather. This will help prevent increasing the indoor climate control level (up high) but maintain the lowest setting. During summer, encourage them to wear something light as well.
9) Consider Going Paperless
This tip applies when it comes to printing papers or using the photocopy machine. In fact, it has been proven that going paperless is more efficient to a business than constantly having to print out papers. Moreover, doing this will help ensure the printer is turned off most of the time. For this reason, consider investing in online signing services such as DocuSign. This is a service that allows you to share as many documents as you want. You can also consider taking advantage of online collaboration platforms such as Google Docs.
