We know all businesses are different and it can sometimes be difficult to see where you can save energy. However, we also know that lots of us are feeling the pressure of making our workspaces greener.
Saving energy should be as important for your business as making a profit, but we know that it can seem much more daunting.
Here are eight easy ways you can start making your business more energy efficient:
1. Carry out an energy audit
If you are serious about driving down energy usage within your organisation, your first step should be to carry out an energy audit. This will involve looking at your whole business and analysing where changes can be made.
You might want to conduct this assessment yourself or bring in an auditor to do the work for you. Put simply, an energy audit involves looking at where your company uses energy, how much you’re using and any areas of potential wastage.
We know this can seem daunting, but you can check out some handy guides online to help you do this. Once this process has been completed, you can identify areas where changes can be made and you can start saving energy.
2. Switch equipment off when you’re not using it
We know this seems obvious, but failing to turn appliances off at the mains can cost you big when it comes to wasted energy. For example, figures from the Energy Saving Trust suggest that over a 12-month period, a laser printer can use over £18 when left on standby, while a modem can use more than £6 and a desktop PC can waste nearly £2.50 worth of power.
Individually, these figures may not seem like a lot, but when you consider the cost of energy wasted by appliances across your workplace, these figures can really start to mount up. This means it pays to get into the habit of switching equipment off when it’s not being used.
Putting your devices on “standby” can sound like a solution but in reality, this also wastes energy. Change the culture in your workplace and encourage everyone to start switching off at the end of every day.
3. Take advantage of natural light
Artificial lights consume power – natural light is free. Sounds so simple doesn’t it? By limiting the use of artificial lighting to only the dark areas in the workplace that are out of the sun’s reach, you can really start lowering your energy use.
By keeping blinds open and taking advantage of skylights and other natural sources of light, you can reduce your electric lighting usage during daylight hours. We aren’t saying you should work in the dark, but you probably don’t need all those extra lights on all the time.
4. Choose energy-efficient light bulbs
In seasons such as autumn or winter, using artificial lights is unfortunately unavoidable. However, even here, you can help to save energy by choosing an energy-efficient light bulb.
Some figures suggest that upgrading from conventional lighting to LED technology can save businesses as much as 80% on their lighting bills. That is huge!
As well as being considerably cheaper to run than traditional light bulbs, LEDs also last much longer, bringing further savings down the line.
5. Choose laptops over desktops
If you can, try opting for laptops instead of desktop computers. Laptops typically consume less energy compared to desktops, so keep this in mind when buying your workplace equipment.
The monitor size also contributes to the amount of energy consumed. While graphic designers and people from similar lines of work cannot work on small screens, there are a lot of other employees in your company whose work doesn’t depend on the huge monitors (no matter what they might think).
Make the right selection and keep the screen size at a reasonable level when it comes to the choice of monitor to save on energy.
6. Re-seal windows and doors
Even seemingly small gaps around your doors and windows can result in significant heat loss from your premises. To prevent this, you can reseal your doors and windows to block draughts and make your building more effective at retaining heat.
It’s not always easy to spot the problem areas, so for the best results, do a walk-around of your premises on a cold, windy day. This will help you to identify gaps that need filling.
Sometimes, you need to spend a little time and money to save energy and make huge savings down the line.
7. Control your heating and cooling
Cutting down on air conditioning could mean significant savings for you. We are not suggesting your employees start working in swimwear or snowsuits, but really take into consideration the temperature needed for an optimum working environment.
Make sure you’re providing just the right level of heating and cooling, and therefore not wasting energy, it’s useful to have a programmable thermostat installed. This will make it easy for you to control the temperature and stop any arguments.
8. Go paperless
If your business is in the habit of printing lots of documents, now could be the time to consider a move to paperless systems. This will help you to reduce the amount of energy used by your printers and save on the cost of paper and ink.
Avoid printing files that can be sent via email!
There are many ways you can share or store important files in a safe manner. Modern technology gives you a ton of options, including cloud storage, email clients and even ped drives if you want to use these.
Ask clients to digitally sign documents and consider the small investment in training staff a huge cost-saving benefit.
9. Promote sustainability in the workplace
Promote sustainability throughout your company. Explain to your employees why it’s important and in what ways everyone can benefit from it.
You can start small by sending out a reminder for everyone to always check if their computers are unplugged before leaving the office at the end of their day or turning off lights in rooms as they leave.
The secret to reducing energy consumption in the workplace is getting your employees on board, and making small changes in their daily habits at work. If you try and do too much too quickly, you’ll likely be met with more resistance and confusion.
If you think about it, improving a business’ profitability can be as simple as being wise with everything you spend money on, like energy. Saving energy in the office doesn’t only reduce your electricity bills, but contributes a lot to the environment by lessening carbon pollution.
Going green definitely improves your reputation and this has amazing positive effects on your company’s image and brand.
10. Consider installing solar panels
Aside from being a great source of renewable energy, solar panels are clean, longer-lasting, and require little maintenance. The solar power itself is generated by a surface that collects energy, which is usually a solar panel system, as well as a form of converting the captured energy into heat or electricity.
An example of Solar Panels installed at the Salthouse Hotel in Ballycastle by the team at Solar Power NI.
How much electricity will Solar Panels Save?
Solar panels are one of the best and fastest-advancing forms of renewable energy on the market, and it’s easy to see why they are so popular. They help to save energy that would have otherwise been taken from the grid, they cut your energy bills, and they can make you an excellent financial return in the future.
While the initial costs can be a little high, the payback period is comparably short, so don’t rule them out just yet.
What are the environmental benefits of Solar Panels?
Using solar panels means that you reduce the amount of energy that you use from the grid. You can even use the Solar Battery Storage to keep your building powered at night. This saves energy and also reduces the number of pollutants being released every day.
- Solar Power produce no emissions
Solar energy relies purely on capturing light from the sun and converting that energy into electricity or heating for your commercial building. This means you are not producing any greenhouse gases or harmful emissions that are contributing to global warming. It can even reduce your carbon footprint by 80% in one year.
Solar energy is an entirely renewable form of energy, unlike the fossil fuels we are currently burning. Solar energy also has no nasty emissions being released into the environment.
Looking for Solar Panels in Northern Ireland?
Solar Power NI has experience with several different types of installations for both residential and commercial PV installations. Whether it be, corrugated roofs, tiled roofs, building integrated installations or even ground-mounted solutions, Solar Power NI can cater for all possibilities.
Contact our experts for a quote today.
