Wasted Energy

Energy is one of the largest expenses. But since it’s not something we can do without, many businesses overlook simple solutions and opportunities to reduce wasted energy; which in turn lowers costs.

Here are four tips to make changes to your Business:

1) Thermostat and malfunctioning equipment

If we pick apart an energy or electricity bill to better understand what appliances use the most energy, we quickly see that for most businesses/buildings close to 50% of the energy is used by heating, ventilation, and air conditioning.

Setting a thermostat and running your HVAC systems on a set schedule is the minimum a business can do to be more energy efficient. Many businesses waste energy by allowing their thermostats to be changed manually on a day-to-day basis. Even more, businesses waste energy from under-performing HVAC equipment.

2) Leaving equipment turned on unnecessarily

It seems very basic and unless you actually look, you’d assume that this is already being done. Yet, you would be very surprised at how often a brief inspection can find many appliances and a lot of equipment left on. Outside lighting left on during the day, air conditioning being left blast all night during summer months, lunchroom, restroom, conference room, and other lights left on when no one is occupying the space. While there are infinite examples, a daily inspection of the building can go a long way in reducing energy waste and so reducing your electric bill.

3) Turning on all your equipment at one time

Your capacity charges, or peak demand charges, are the second largest line item on your energy bill. 

If your business opens at 8:00 AM, or whatever time, it’s most likely logical to have all your lights, computers, equipment, air conditioning or heating, turn on at that time. But turning them all on at the same time creates a big demand for energy, which in turn increases your capacity charges. 

By staggering when each piece of equipment is turned on, you can reduce that peak demand and so reduce your capacity charges.

For example, if you have four thermostats, time them to start at 15-minute intervals. If you have various machines you use, wait for one to be fully started before turning on the next and so on. These small simple fixes will help reduce your energy bill by up to 20%. In many states, you can enroll in a peak demand program that not only helps you reduce your capacity charges, but you can qualify to get money back from your utility depending on how much peak demand you reduce.

4)Not repairing or replacing equipment

Replacing broken equipment is rarely in the budget. Running routine maintenance on your equipment can extend your equipment’s life by up to 20%. But with energy intelligence, you take it to a new level with software that can alert you when any piece of equipment starts to falter even slightly, so you can catch non-performance immediately, before it gets worse and before it wastes a lot of energy and increases your energy bills. 

Additional solutions:

CRYOGEN X4- A sustainable solution improving the efficiency of your HVAC or refrigeration system with a one-time installation that can save you up to 30% on your energy costs.

Check out the CRYOGEN X4 page for more information - https://www.anglotasman.com/sustainability-solutions/cryogen-x4

SKYCOOL- Innovative sustainable coating that can save you up to 50% on your energy costs while protecting your roof lowering maintenance and keeping comfortable temperatures for your staff.

Check out the SKYCOOL page for more information - https://www.anglotasman.com/sustainability-solutions/skycool