Now Is The Time For Small Businesses To Save Energy & Cut Business Energy Bills
With gas and electricity prices on the rise it’s never been more important for small businesses to save energy and cut their business energy bills.
The unrest in North Africa and the Middle East has meant gas and electricity prices have risen significantly over recent weeks with energy companies taking cheaper deals off the market and introducing more expensive ones. Therefore it’s important for small businesses to cut their energy bills and become more energy efficient in the process.
The thought of saving energy can be quite daunting. The imagination runs riot with visions of builders installing insulation, working in dark offices freezing during working hours in the winter – and all proving to be costly. However, it may not be as bad as you might expect.
There are some fairly simple ways of saving energy and therefore cutting business electricity and gas bills. The Carbon Trust has a number of suggestions on how to improve energy efficiency and suggests that small businesses begin by simply looking and dealing with the basics – making staff aware and concentrating on heating and cooling the work place.
Many people are becoming increasingly conscious about energy use and how they can reduce their energy bills at home, so encouraging awareness at work may not be as hard as it sounds. It’s a matter of educating staff to switch off equipment they are not using, especially at the weekend when they often leave their computers or laptops switched on – using energy and costing money.
But it’s not just computers and laptops that staff should be encouraged to turn off. Staff should be encouraged to switch off all non essential equipment when it’s practically possible to do so. For example, they could turn off monitors, light switches, radios, printers and air conditioning units. Many of these are often left on standby but it will save energy and reduce business energy bills at a time when business electricity prices are increasing, if equipment is not just left on standby but actually turned off. In some situations electrical equipment still consumes energy when it’s plugged in – even if it’s not switched on. So some items may have to be physically unplugged.
It may also be necessary to educate staff as far as air conditioning units are concerned. How many times have you been in an office where the air conditioning is on but the windows are also open? Small businesses should educate their staff that windows and doors should be kept closed when both heating and cooling systems are being used. Furthermore, these systems should not be used at the same time! It seems obvious to say but there’s no point having the air conditioning on if the heating is also on! And ensure that air conditioning units are switched off when there’s no one in the building. The same applies to heating. Ensure that you’re not spending money heating an office building at the weekend when there’s no one there.
These are all basic tips which don’t cost anything to implement but will save you money by cutting business electricity costs. But an additional way of reducing your energy costs is to make a note of when your business electricity and gas contracts are due for renewal and use one of the many comparison sites now available to compare business electricity prices or business gas prices. Again this costs you nothing but could save you money.