Energy Saving Tips. They can have a dramatic impact on your bill. The cheapest energy is the energy you don t use.

Transcription

1 Energy Saving Tips They can have a dramatic impact on your bill. The cheapest energy is the energy you don t use.

2 Drive by your building at night. Driving by your building at night makes it easy to check how many non-essential lights have been left on. Make sure they are turned off.

3 Fit motion detectors on your lights. Fit motion detectors on your lights to turn them off when no one is in the room - Infra red or microwave sensors detect movement and automatically change the lights. Most sensors allow you to change their settings to suit your working conditions.

4 Is your boiler too big? It is important to have the right size of boiler. Oversized boilers never reach their full potential since they are always running at part load.

5 Lock your heating controls. People are always fiddling with the heating controls. You can fit tamper proof thermostats and controls to stop this.

6 Consider a heat recovery ventilation system. This extracts the warm moist air from your building through a concealed dust system. The air is passed through a heat exchanger then ducted outside. Fresh air from the outside is drawn in and passed through the heat exchanger which warms it and then ducted back into the building..

7 Close the door! Keeping doors closed can reduce your heating costs by 30%, easy to fit door closers make it impossible for someone to leave the door open.

8 Are your thermostats in the right place? If your thermostats are in draughts, direct sunlight or a place they cannot read the correct temperature they won t be doing their job. Make sure they are correctly positioned.

9 Keep your light fittings clean. Make sure you are getting the right level of light through by keeping your lights and their fittings clean.

10 Do you need all those lights? By auditing the light levels inside your building it may be possible to remove some of your light fittings and still achieve the light levels you need.

11 Fit time controlled switches on lights. Fitting simple controlled switches turns on the lights for the time needed and automatically turns them off.

12 Have you got the right light diffusers? Changing your diffusers can let more light through from the bulb and remove the need for so many lights.

13 Vending machines. Switching these off when the office is closed saves you money (obviously you can t do this if the machine contains food that would spoil).

14 Clearance for fridges and freezers. These are more efficient with a 20cm gap from the wall to allow for air circulation.

15 Appoint an energy project team. In our experience a team of energy savers works better than a lone energy star. Create a team of people that are tasked to find ways to save energy and make sure that energy saving measures are put in place and upheld.

16 Screensavers. Disable them - they are a waste of energy. Let the screen go black or ask staff to turn the screen off when they are not at their desk.

17 Check Energy Ratings. Check energy ratings when considering what equipment to buy for the business and take account of the energy rating. Cheap equipment can end up costing you more. In the long run it consumes more power.

18 Summer/winter. Are you changing the way you light and heat your building to reflect the changes in season? We often find that business never get around to changing energy controls to reflect the time of year.

19 Turn off equipment. Kitchens can be big energy users, ensure your staff are switching equipment off when not in use.

20 Daylight. Use the daylight where you can, if daylight is already lighting an area you can fit sensors with automatic dimmers that will lower the artificial light levels and save you power. Could you fit more skylights or light pipes to bring more sunlight into the building?

21 Read the manuals. Read the manuals and turn on your equipment's energy saving features, your computers, printers and other equipment probably have energy saving features. If you read the manual you'll understand how to activate these features and can start saving money straight away.

22 Check when the heating and any air conditioning is on. Make sure you understand your heating and ventilation controls. When is it coming on and when is it turning off. Are these the best times for the business? Make sure the systems aren't coming on during the hours you are closed.

23 Not too hot, not too cold. Correct temperature control of your building can save you lots of money. 19 to 21 Celsius are considered comfortable levels.

24 Uncover your radiators and heating ducts. Make sure nothing is covering up or impending the flow of hot air.

25 Fit draught excluders. Walk around and see where the draughts are coming from and then block them.

26 Standby is not off. Electrical appliances continue to use power even if they are on standby. Find out how they can be turned off at the mains safely.

27 Understand where power is being used We can help you do this by looking at your smart meter data though our Utility Insight platform or fit our circuit-level monitors which gives you very details almost real-time power usage data.

28 Energy awareness and new staff. Make sure your new starters understand the part they can play in reducing your energy consumption, have energy awareness included in your staffs induction and training.

29 Switch off stickers. One of the strongest ways to change peoples behaviour is to remind them of what to do as they are about to do it. A simple switch off sticker above a light switch can be a powerful tool for change.

30 Where did that come from? Make sure staff are not bringing in appliances and using them in their office. There may be more than fanheaters, kettles, toasters and other appliances in your building than you think.

31 Turn off your lights in shops. If you operate a shop in a shopping centre make sure all of your lights including the shop window display lights are off when the centre is closed and no one can see your windows.

32 Car park lights. Our Energy Auditors often find businesses will leave their lights on in their car parks. (even when the office is closed for the night or over the weekend).

33 Ask for a Utilitywise Energy Audit One of our energy audits can save you thousands by identifying areas where energy improvements can be made. The final report shows where changes can be made, what they would cost, and what the payback period would be. The Utilitywise Audit tool is so powerful several energy suppliers are using it to conduct their own audits.

34 Fit energy efficient lamps. Energy efficient lamps use much less power, for example LED spotlights use 92% less energy than halogen spots. Inefficient strip lighting uses over 20% more energy than T5 tubes.

35 Out of hours staff. Make sure your security staff, cleaners and anyone working late or over the weekend understand the need to conserve energy. Make sure that they are not turning on lights and other equipment then leaving them on when they exit an area or leaving the building.

36 Label switches with what they do. Putting a label saying what the switch operates on the actual control ensure that your staff don t switch things on they don t need. It can become a habit to switch everything on when you come in on a morning, seeing what the switch does can break that habit.

37 What else can be switched off overnight? Is some equipment left on overnight just out of habit? Investigate what could be turned off.

38 Heating and cooling an empty room. Most often seen in hotels where the heating and ventilating system is not linked to the room being occupied, it can also be seen in other buildings. Make sure you are not pumping heat into a room that is only used occasionally.

39 Does your building know the weather? There are a range of weather compensation controls that can take account of the outside temperature to adjust your heating and air conditioning accordingly.

40 Rewards. People respond to rewards more than punishments, so don t forget to reward the members of staff that are the best energy savers. A simple thank you note or cup of coffee to say thanks for tuning off your equipment can have a big impact. Make sure everyone knows who has been rewarded.

41 Harvest the wisdom of your crowd. What energy saving ideas can your workmates come up with? Start a suggestion scheme and make it part of your energy saving teams job to ask everyone for ideas.

42 Light switches in the wrong place. Offices get moved around and changed over the years. This can result in the light switches not controlling the right lights. Do the way your switches work force you to turn on the lights in office space even when no one is using it?

43 No paper day. Printing and photocopying takes lots of energy. Have a day banning both these activities. See what happens and then see how often you could do it.

44 Clean your windows. Get the maximum use of daylight by keeping your windows clean.

45 Regularly service your heating and ventilation. Set up a maintenance chart to ensure that things are being checked on a regular basis.

46 Do you really need it that hot? Check what temperature your heating and ventilating is set at. What temperature are you actually achieving in the office and do they match? Try lowering the temperature to see if it makes a difference every 1 degree will save 2%-3% on the bill. The Carbon Trust estimates that accepting a slightly reduced temperature in the workplace could save over 4 per year per person.

47 Have you checked your insulation. It not only reduces your heating bill it also keeps you cooler in summer. Don t forget your floor - are you losing heat through it? Are all pipes, tanks and valves lagged? What about equipment that uses heat - is it appropriately insulated?

48 Want more help? Subscribe to our newsletters and blogs by visiting our website and follow us on Twitter for lots more advice and help on reducing your energy and water consumption and lowering your carbon footprint.