Business owners have even more to gain than homeowners when it comes to increasing their energy efficiency levels. The average business consumes significantly more energy than the average home and small differences can therefore add up to large savings in terms of both energy costs and environmental harm.If you are a business owner, small or otherwise, and you are wondering how you can cut back on your companies energy usage, here are a few simple tips for doing just that. Look at Your Electrical Equipment If you’ve got the cash to invest, take a serious look at the equipment that is used by your staff. Replacing your computers, printers and fax machines with Energy Star equivalents can lead to serious savings. It’s also worth noting that laptops use up to ninety percent less energy than desktops. Similar savings can be achieved by replacing your laser printers with the inkjet variety. Plug Everything Out If you don’t want to invest in new equipment, a lot of money can still be saved by simply plugging everything out each night. Electrical devices left on standby are notorious for eating up energy. If you have enough of them, you could easily be wasting thousands of dollars each year. Change Your Lights Depending on the size of your business premises, your expenditure on lighting is likely to be significant. Consider the following options for reducing it.
- Replace all of your lights with the CFL variety.
- Replace fluorescent exit signs with the LED variety.
- Consider replacing some of your lights with light reflectors. Many business premises have far more light fixtures than they actually need.
- Install motion detectors in rooms that are rarely occupied.
- If your walls are darkly coloured, consider painting them a brighter colour.
Improve Your Temperature Control Another major cost for the average business owner is temperature control. Keeping staff cool in the Summer and warm in the Winter isn’t exactly cheap. Here are a few tips for doing so for less.
- If your heating or air conditioning system is outdated, consider replacing it. The job isn’t cheap but in the long run, doing so will save you money.
- Regardless of the age of your heating and air conditioning systems, perform regular maintenance.
- Install blinds to keep your premises naturally cool on warm days.
- Install reflective film on any windows that face South West.
- Install lockable covers for your thermostats. Your staff are unlikely to care about your energy bills as much as you do.
- If your ceilings and walls aren’t properly insulated, look into fixing the problem. Inadequate insulation in either of these places can cost you a lot during the Winter months.
Think About Solar Power Finally, look into solar power. Many business owners are put off the idea because they don’t want to depend on the sun. What they don’t realise however is that most solar power systems are actually installed to compliment, not replace, existing power sources. And though solar power systems are rarely cheap to install, you can profit from them in more ways than one. Not only can you expect seriously lower energy bills, you can also look forward to having a much greener image. Nothing says green quite like solar power.
Ed Markwell has authored plenty of home improvement articles. In one of his article, he has mentioned about the alternative ways to heat your home using new gas boilers. Drop him a line at Twitter!
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