These 4 simple steps will help make your business more energy efficient in no time.
1. Craft an Energy Policy
An energy policy is a written statement from your business that explains how your business intends to combat energy inefficiency in your business. It helps make energy efficiency a core tenet of your business, and gives everyone a reference sheet for what constitutes good energy efficiency practices.
2. Understand Your Energy Consumption
Analyze your energy consumption through metering and spot abnormal consumption. Compare your energy consumption with similar businesses. This will allow your business to see where energy consumption can be reduced.
3. Educate Your Colleagues
Put into place a plan for how your business will reduce energy consumption and educate your employees on what they can do to contribute in reducing energy waste.
4. Monitor Your Targets
Keep your eye on your energy consumption and seat goals for what you want to achieve in the future.
General Tips on Reducing Energy Consumption:
- Lighting. Turn off the lighting at the end of the day and turn off the lights when leaving a room.
- Turn appliances off. Turn off the monitors/laptops when leaving the desk for a longer period, and turn appliances off when leaving the workplace.
- BMS. Consider installation of a Building Management System.
- Deadband. Introduce a deadband to your thermostat; this will avoid your system constantly switching between heating and cooling to keep temperature stable.
- Weather compensated heating system. This system uses a temperature sensor placed outside on the shadow side of your building and considers the temperature changes outside to adjust the temperature inside.
- Use shades and curtains, to prevent the building becoming too hot or too cold.
- Water. Use water smarter. Lower the temperature in your hot water tank if possible.
- Heating. Reduce heating by just 1-2 degrees. And always turn off heating/air-conditioning when the workday is over and in weekends.
- Refrigeration. Keep cold room doors closed.
- Rethink how you print. Assess whether or not you really need that document on paper.
- Recycle your waste. Put up recycling stations to make it easy for your employees to recycle.
You can also avail of grants to help improve refrigeration, lighting and heating for your business, all through Energia! For more information, check out
Energia's Cash for Kilowatts scheme.