Many businesses say that the cost of energy is often a barrier to their business growth and success. This is becoming an issue for even more businesses now more than ever as the energy market sees some of the highest prices we have ever seen. We want to help our customers save money on their energy bills by sharing some of our best energy-saving tips.
As a business, you may be wondering why your business should become more energy efficient and what the benefits may be. The biggest benefit of changing how your business uses energy is that once you start making cost savings, that money is going to go straight back to your bottom line. In addition, this also allows you to reduce your business’s carbon footprint, helping towards becoming net zero.
Top energy saving tips
Energy saving can be done quite easily by your business. Small changes require little effort and could be implemented within your workspaces from today. A lot of these things could be stuff you are already doing around the office.
Energy audit
An energy audit is probably going to be most helpful when it comes to reducing how much energy you use. An energy audit is a complete overview of how much energy you use in each area of your business. You could do this yourself by using your meter readings or a smart meter.
However, it might be worthwhile getting a professional to do this for you. Once you have all the information from the audit you can see where you could be possibly wasting energy.
Heating
Heating your building accounts for a large proportion of your energy bills, therefore making small changes in this area could make a massive difference. You could reduce energy consumption with your heating by ensuring the heating is only on when it needs to be. When using the heating reduce wastage by keeping the doors and windows closed to help prevent heat from escaping. This will ensure that less heat is wasted and therefore less energy will be needed to heat up the office.
Lighting
The lights in your office often use up a lot of energy mainly due to them being workspaces not in use or being left overnight when nobody is there. If your office also has a lot of natural light coming into people's workspaces, then you could also encourage staff to not switch lights on whether the natural light during the day.
Office equipment
Employees in many offices are usually guilty of leaving office equipment on, whether this is computers, monitors or even TVs. Ensure at the end of every workday that equipment is switched off to reduce unnecessary spending on your energy bills.
Production equipment
In many workplaces the biggest energy expenditure there is not office equipment or lighting it is usually production equipment, especially if your business is on the manufacturing side of the business.
To reduce energy expenditure here it would benefit, you to use an energy audit to is the peak time of energy usage and try to reduce production equipment at these times. Also, you could adjust work hours in order to switch off the equipment a night.
How to invest in your energy systems
Although taking action to become more Energy efficient will lower your overall consumption, improving and updating your current infrastructure will support these actions. As a business owner, there is only so much you can reduce energy usage before you start affecting business practices. To support your energy efficiency efforts, you should add a new sustainable infrastructure where you can improve sustainability. Examples of this include:
Heat pumps
Heating your building is often one of the biggest energy expenditures that your business will face. However, there are ways that you can invest in your business to lower these costs.
Heat pumps could decrease the amount you pay for your gas bills, especially in the winter. Heat pumps work by extracting thermal energy from outside sources and then using electricity to pump this air into a heat source for your building. Although installing these is a big expenditure for your business at first, it could save you up to 60% on your heating bill.
LED lighting
The type of lighting you use in your office can affect how much energy you are consuming every day. Different types of lightbulbs require different amounts of energy. LED lights are not only the cheapest type of bulb, but they also use around 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs do. Consider replacing older bulbs with new LED ones.
Skylights
If your business runs throughout the day when there is lots of sunlight, it might be worthwhile to take advantage of that when it comes to lighting. Adding skylights will reduce your reliance on keeping the lights on within the office all day.
Updated equipment
Older computers and monitors can use up a lot of energy. When it comes to replacing your office equipment why not think about switching to energy-efficient computers, as these can save up to 25% 40% energy compared to a regular computer.
Smart meters
Having a smart meter if you don't already is essential for keeping up with your energy consumption. A smart meter can tell you exactly how much energy you are using and what time a day your energy usage usually peaks. This can help you pinpoint exactly what is causing any spikes in consumption and reduce this.
Insulating your building
Another way you can save on your heating bills is to make sure that your building has the right amount of insulation to keep heat in. This can include ensuring your windows are double-glazed and properly sealed to ensure heat is not escaping. By doing this you will need less energy to keep heating your building as less heat will be escaping.
Involving your staff
A big part of making sure that your business is energy efficient is involving your staff in the process. You should implement suggestions into your business and ensure your team is on board with the changes you want to make. Encourage staff to stick with energy efficient practices. This will not only help your business but could also help your staff use these tips outside of work, saving money on their energy bills.
One way you can involve your staff could be to introduce staff incentives to ensure that everyone is trying to reduce the energy usage around the office.
Getting on the path to net zero
If you would like to start implementing energy efficient practices in your business today, see our Net Zero services to find out what we can offer your business. Resolve Net Zero can do all the heavy lifting for you when it comes to innovation and gets your business back on track. We can offer you:
- full carbon reporting- including scopes 1,2 and 3
- Green tariffs
- Innovative technology to get you on track
- full support for your team
- Accreditation on your achievements
And much more see our plans and services today to get started.
Switching energy suppliers
If you want to increase savings on your energy further, it might be worthwhile to look at switching your energy contract or supplier when you next come to renew.
At Resolve, we can compare some of the UK's best energy suppliers and find the cheapest and best option for your business. Get a free quote today or get in touch to find out more.
If you're looking to save money on your energy bills then why not get in touch today? The relationships Resolve Energy has developed with over 24 of the UK’s biggest business energy suppliers allows our energy experts to source the best business energy rates available for your company right when you need them. Request a free quote today and start saving money on your energy.
