Commercial property owners have been advised that they should target energy efficiency in order to cut their costs.
Paul Edwards, chair of the British Council for Offices Environmental Sustainability Group, said air conditioning systems can provide significant savings, even when settings are only slightly altered. Edwards suggested that most commercial property air conditioning systems will be set to a temperature of between 20 and 22 degrees, but raising this to 24 degrees can result in a reduction in power consumption.
‘Air conditioning is a major consumer of energy. If you can look at the temperatures you’re controlling, ask yourself if you really need to control the room to 20 or 22 degrees.’ Mr Edwards stated.
Lloyds TSB recently declared that 30 per cent of small businesses have managed to expand, after improving their energy efficiency.
Environmental consultants, Ecosys, believe that up to 60 per cent of energy used by office equipment could be wasted, as a result of equipment being left on standby. Meaning, you could be paying up to 60 per cent too much for your energy bill. Problems such as this are very easy to fix, simply turn all unused office equipment off at the mains.
Perhaps you could run a Big Switch Off campaign, or even stand at the office doors come 5:30pm, reminding everyone to go back and switch off all office equipment properly.
Devices like cell-phone chargers, can be a constant drain on energy should they remain plugged into the mains following use. By unplugging radios, coffee machines and printers, you can save vast swaths of energy over the course of a year.
Turning off all lights in the office, is another major saver. Lights and computers left on overnight, lumber UK businesses with an extra £100 million, in electricity bills every single year.
You could even change the lighting system used in your office. Costly and inefficient, incandescent bulbs, should be replaced with compact, fluorescent lights. Not only do compact fluorescents use a quarter of the power of traditional bulbs, but they can also last much longer.
Give these energy saving techniques a try in your commercial property, you may well be amazed by the results.
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