Strategies How To Reduce The Electricity Bill At Your Business This Summer

Summer is upon us, and while this may be great for a lot of businesses—particularly retail and hospitality—it also means preparing for some pretty hefty energy bills.

A lot of the time, the average business electricity bill is written off as an unavoidable and unchanging expense, but as energy costs rise, it’s going to have to become a major factor in how operations are run. Especially since there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight to these rapidly increasing electricity costs.

This means that in order to survive and thrive, many businesses are simply going to have to think outside the box to find out how to reduce electricity bills. For some, there may be substantial profit margins to be gained by taking just a handful of basic measures to bring down this overhead. For others, there’s still no harm in bringing down your carbon footprint and saving a little bit of money while you’re at it.

Have an energy audit done on your business

An energy audit can help determine your baseline energy use and then offer a clear outline of potential ways to save on energy usage. Many electricity providers offer free audits. A professional will then come out to your business and do a full inspection of your location to check for air leaks, insulation issues, or opportunities to install more energy-efficient lighting.

Buy energy-efficient appliances

When fitting your business with the equipment that you need, check for energy rating labels. New appliances that have a better energy star rating do tend to be a bit more expensive to buy, however, they will save you money in the long run. And as energy prices continue to rise so rapidly, you’ll start seeing a return on those investments pretty quickly.

Replace existing light bulbs with LED bulbs

Considering the lights stay on from the minute the first person arrives at the premises until when the last person leaves at the end of the day, it stands to reason that lighting would be one of the first places to look when improving energy consumption. If your business still uses older light bulbs (such as incandescent bulbs) and fittings, transitioning to LED will deliver a significant reduction in your electric bill.

Make the most of our natural sunlight

In Perth, we have an abundance of natural sunlight, so why not use it? On a sunny day, you might not need to turn on the lights at all in areas where windows can give all the illumination you need.

As well as reducing your dependance on artificial light, Perth’s sunshine can also be used extremely well to power solar panels which can substantially reduce your power bills.

Oh and it should go without saying, but turn the lights off when you’re not using them!

Reduce peak demand

The phrase ‘peak demand’ refers to the hours in a day when energy usage is at its highest, and reducing this peak demand is one of the best ways to save electricity in any workplace. Peak demand times are typically normal office hours (9am – 5pm). You can reduce your demand during this time by staggering work hours and start times, thus running heavy equipment and factory equipment during the evening and early morning hours. This will shift your more energy intensive operations off peak when energy prices are cheaper.

Turn off all electrical devices at the end of the day

Leaving computers running overnight is one of the worst habits in many workplaces. Simply pressing the button on the monitor is not the same as turning the computer off. In fact if you can get your staff in the habit of turning off devices at the power outlet, then you can potentially save considerably more energy that way. If your devices and appliances—including coffee machines, microwaves, printers etc—are connect to the mains outlets in a way that allows switching off just a few mains switches, then you can properly power down your workplace without having to go round to each appliance individually.

Air conditioning

Finding the optimal air conditioning settings for summer is always a challenge, especially when multiple people in the same area have quite different comfort preferences. That said, 22 – 24 degrees is usually where the majority of people find it most comfortable.

It can also help to have ceiling fans to keep the air circulating. This will keep people happy whose preference is for colder air, while also helping the air conditioner run more efficiently.

Check out our blog on evaporative vs refrigerated cooling to find out what kind of air conditioning would best suit your workplace.

Plant some trees

If it’s possible to plant some nice big shady trees around the outside of your workplace, you’ll help to keep some of the direct sunlight out and therefore avoid the heat that comes with it. This shouldn’t negatively affect your attempts to utilise natural light rather than artificial light, but it will keep out some of that harsh direct heat. It’ll also make the place look a lot nicer.

Applying some of these measures will go a long way towards making your energy bills a bit more manageable, but of course, the main priority throughout summer is to keep your workforce comfortable, particularly during Perth’s harsh heatwaves. So to find out how best to keep your employees cool during summer get in contact with us at Perth Air and Power Solutions. We’ll give you the best possible advice on commercial air conditioning service and commercial air conditioning installation.