Energy Saving Tips For Your Business

For all the challenges small businesses like mine face daily, the cost of living—especially energy prices—has recently become a significant concern. Of course, we all have gas and electricity bills to pay, but they've never taken quite such a large bite out of our bank accounts as they do now! My energy bill has just gone up by £100 a month! Ouch.

You don’t need me to tell you that, in recent years, the price of gas and electricity has skyrocketed and clearly continues to do so. It stands to reason that if you can reduce your energy consumption, the more money you’ll save.

Changes you can make to reduce your energy consumption vary from small adjustments to lighting to bigger projects like installing heat pumps or fitting solar panels.

Everyone's circumstances are different, but there will be something you can do, even on the smallest of budgets, to save money in the long term. In non-domestic spaces, heating accounts for about 40% of all energy use.

With that in mind, and while we’re in the midst of a cold snap here in the UK, I’ve put together six ways to help you save some money on your energy bills through energy-saving tips for your business, no matter its size.

Energy Saving Tips For Your Business

While this blog is a bit different from my usual posts, I hope it shows how you could use less to save more. So, if you’re looking to cut down on those energy bills, you could...

1. Switch Your Energy Supplier

While all providers are navigating the same difficult energy market, there may still be an opportunity to switch from your current provider to find a better deal.

The options available may be fewer, but there’s no harm in looking around to find a tariff that suits you better.

For businesses, some suppliers offer free energy management software or discounts for usage at certain times of the day. Exploring your options could save you money.

You might also be able to utilise cash-back sites, like TopCashback.co.uk or QuidCo.com, to get some money back when switching.

2. Regulate Temperatures

In the UK, there’s a legal requirement for employers to ensure their workplace is kept at a "reasonable" temperature.

According to the Health and Safety Executive, indoor workplaces need to be at least 16℃ (or 12℃ if they’re doing "rigorous physical" work). So, you’ll need to turn the heating up sooner or later. Incidentally, there’s no upper limit for heat!

To manage your costs and stay on the right side of the law, it’s wise to regulate the temperature in your workspace. Here are some tips:

• Set your thermostat to keep the temperature within legal limits.

• Position desks near heat sources.

• Move desks, furniture, or filing cabinets away from radiators or heaters to allow heat to circulate.

• Turn off or relocate radiators in areas of the office that aren’t used.

• Draft-proof your offices to minimise heat escaping from windows and doors.

• And, on warmer days (remember those?), don’t run your air conditioning while having windows open!

  
  

If you work from home (like I do), you may be able to claim tax relief on the additional costs of working from home, including electricity, heating, and even broadband!

Photo by Gruescu Ovidiu on Unsplash

3. Add Efficient Lighting

We all need to light our workspaces, even if the temptation is to work in the dark to save those pennies.

When looking around the office (or your home if you’re one of those work-from-home types) and working under fluorescent lighting, consider replacing these with LED lights to help save money.

For example, the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) in the UK has calculated that a shop (or retail unit) covering 100 m² could save around £440 per year by replacing fluorescent lights with 25 x 18w LED bulbs.

It could also be worth installing timers, daylight, and/or motion sensors to turn lights on only when needed and off when no one is around. This is especially useful if staff forget to turn off lights when leaving the room or office at the end of the day.

4. Buy Energy-Efficient Devices

When you’re in the market for new equipment, opt for devices that rank high on the energy-efficient list. This can include everything from light fittings to appliances.

The aforementioned DESNZ maintains an Energy Technology List, which is a UK government-backed list of energy-efficient equipment featuring around 10,000 products. It’s one of the world’s largest databases of top-performing energy-saving products.

At the time of writing, it’s updated twice a month (on the 1st and 15th) with new products added and older or discontinued products removed. This way, you can always be sure of the energy efficiency of what you’re buying.

5. Laptop > Desktop

If any of the equipment you’re buying is a computer, it’s better to opt for a laptop rather than a desktop.

Photo by Andras Vas on Unsplash

Not only is a laptop more flexible in terms of usage (especially if your staff work from home a lot), but it’s also more energy-efficient. This will help reduce your business’s energy consumption.

On average, running a laptop for eight hours a day over the course of a year will cost £200 less than an equivalent desktop. That’s quite a saving if you have a large team!

If replacing them isn’t an option, ensure they’re switched off when not in use (i.e., at the end of the day) rather than just left in 'sleep' or 'standby' mode.

In fact, every desktop computer left running overnight could cost you around £35 a year each!

6. Keep On Top of Maintenance

My final tip is equally important but often overlooked: maintenance!

Maintaining and servicing your heating/cooling equipment is not only good practice for keeping it running efficiently, but it will also save you money in the long run.

This applies to everything from small appliances like kettles and fridges to any large industrial machinery you might have.

Even simple things like clearing the dust from the coils on the back of the fridge can make cooling more energy-efficient, saving you money.

It’s also a good idea to keep a note of when machines are serviced, who did it, and any repairs carried out. When they reach the end of their life and need replacing, remember to go for new products that are more energy-efficient.

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A little different from my normal posts, I know, but I hope this helps you save a little money, especially over the winter. If not, feel free to print it off and burn it. It won’t keep you warm for long, but it’s better than nothing! ;-)

What energy-saving tips have you used that have helped? Is there any I’ve missed that would work well? Let me know in the comments below.