Working spaces

Five ways to lower your energy bills for Q4

(3) don’t be wasteful how businesses can save energy

Here’s some useful insight into unnecessary energy consumption in offices, courtesy of the University of Cambridge:

• A PC monitor that is left on overnight can waste enough energy to print off over 500 pages
• Youd have to plant ten trees to offset the carbon that is produced by leaving a photocopier on overnight
• Electric heaters tend to generate twice as much greenhouse gas as central heating (they’re also around three-times more expensive to run)
• Leaving a window open overnight will waste enough energy to drive a small car over 35 miles
• Just one light left on overnight over a year creates a similar amount of greenhouse gas as a car trip from Cambridge to Paris (a small department or for our purposes, business can save more than 1, 000 a year by ensuring lights are not left on overnight)

When put into this kind of context, some of these statistics are mind blowing. Many of us assume that there’s no harm in leaving things switched on when they’re not in use, but it’s clear to see just how much energy and money we are wasting through sheer carelessness and laziness.

To ensure you’re not burning money, youll need to get any’staff you have on board. By showing them these figures, theyll get a clearer idea of how much their bad habits are costing the company.

(4) Savingenergy in the flexible working era

A report by the Institute of Leadership & Management found that almost 94 per cent of UK organisations offer flexible working provisions to staff in some way and micro businesses are leading the way in this.

Working in a micro business or startup may mean that office hours have to become more flexible to allow staff to take advantage of more convenient shift patterns. This will obviously mean energy is being used for longer. it’s the little things that business owners tend to forget about, such as the cost of keeping lights on after hours, which can really make a dent into their bottom line.

On the flip side, modern technology has enabled us to work whenever and wherever we please, which should benefit micro firms from a costs angle. If you or your staff can work from home just one or two days a week, you can cut down on your office energy consumption quite easily.

(5) Check out the competition

Why is it that so many micro business owners are yet to switch their energy supplier? For far too long, small companies have been plodding along on a rollover energy tariff, paying far too much for their gas and electricity in the process because it is at the bottom of their priority list. Customer loyalty is not always rewarded by energy suppliers and the fact that consumer organisations are already lobbying against the existence of “rollover” contracts shows just how unfair they are, capitalising on business owner apathy. However, thanks to increasing awareness, it appears that business owners are finally realising that theyve been missing a trick.

The length of time it takes to switch providers continues to shorten, and it seems the long-term aim is to get changeovers completed within 24 hours. The whole process is stress-free and the potential gains are great Love Energy Savings, for example, can help businesses to save an average of 1, 772 at a time. Time is no longer an excuse, and neither is ignorance.