When you think of modern businesses, the chances are you’ll regard them as being business energy efficient. That includes bigger business and industry, such as factories – they will certainly be seen by most as more energy efficient that their older counterparts from an age when business energy efficiency was not such a widely discussed topic.
However, as a recent Energy Advice Line blog reported, this is not necessarily the case.
There are a few key factors that can influence how energy efficient (or not) your business is in terms of business electricity and business gas usage, and this can be applied equally to large factories or tiny one man band companies.
Those business energy basics are measuring, monitoring and staff awareness.
Energy Advice Line reported back in February that factory output had fallen by 0.1 per cent in December, largely due to the unprecedentedly cold and snowy weather conditions stopping staff from getting to work, lorries from delivering goods and supplies and keeping customers away from the high street.
Overall industrial production rose, by 0.5% month on month, but was almost entirely accounted for by a strong performance from the electricity and gas sectors as chilly consumers turned up the heating.
You can’t blame Britain’s businesses for thinking it’s a relentless uphill struggle as the cold weather forces them to crank the heating up to keep customers and staff warm, while less customers are able to make it through the doors.
So let’s go over those business energy basics. First, measuring.
Measuring your company’s business electricity and gas consumption is vital to ensuring you are not paying too much for your utility bills.
The much lauded smart meter scheme is designed to help businesses measure their usage more accurately. After all, how can you save something if you don’t know how much of it you are using in the first place?
Accurately measuring your business energy usage will also mean an end to estimated bills, which are often vastly over-inflated. Utility companies often supply estimated business electricity and gas bills, so always check that your bill is based on a meter reading.
Now that you are measuring how much business energy you are using, it is also prudent to monitor usage patterns. Obviously, if you run an office and the staff all start at 9am you will see massive hikes in consumption around those times; however, you will also quickly be able to monitor if there is a particularly energy guzzling piece of equipment.
Switching an old boiler for a more modern version or replacing an inefficient freezer with a modern efficient one will quickly enable you to make vast savings.
Thirdly, educate your staff and ensure everyone is working together to improve the energy efficiency of your business and reduce your business electricity costs.
By reminding staff how much energy can be saved by, for example, turning off all computers at night or keeping the shop door closed during cold days will mean that everyone is thinking along the same lines, and your staff will be more likely to be energy aware in everything they do – right down to making the tea.
Of course, it goes without saying that businesses should also check they are on the best business energy contract in the first place. Shopping around for business electricity and gas supplier is vitally important.
One last tip: check the contract renewal dates and then visit an independent business electricity price comparison site such as energyadviceline.org.uk to see how they can help you save on your business electricity rates.
Contact Details
Energy Advice Line Limited,
2 Post Office Buildings,
Cardigan Road,
Bournemouth,
BH9 1BJ
Phone: 0800 915 1800
