With new laws mandating certain categories of commercial buildings to be more energy efficient, it is more important than ever to reassess how your business is consuming energy. Your building’s energy consumption can affect everything from your property value to penalties for poor EPC ratings, sky high utility bills and even worker performance. However, there are some simple ways to improve your building’s energy efficiency in the long-term.
Measure your consumption
The first step to improving your energy efficiency is knowing where your building’s starting point is. Calculate the amount of energy your building uses per month, peak consumption hours and potentially even departments that use more energy than others. Conducting a full consumption analysis can help you determine areas of weakness to be in a position to better implement improvements.
Invest in solar power
Solar power is the number one way to reduce energy consumption almost immediately and provide long-term savings benefits. Solar power systems can increase the value of your building, enabling you to demand higher rental or sell at a higher price.
Improve building ventilation
When you improve your building’s ventilation, you require less cooling appliances such as air-conditioning units or fans. These appliances use a lot of power and therefore reduce your building’s energy efficiency. If your building can get a good breeze flowing through and better ventilation, you will not need to make use of air-conditioners and fans as much.
LED lights
LED lights use significantly less energy than standard bulbs. By replacing all the lightbulbs in your building with energy efficient LED lights, you will greatly reduce your energy expenditure. This should include both indoor, outdoor and security lights. This is a relatively inexpensive exercise that makes a massive difference to a building’s energy consumption.
Energy efficient equipment
Equipment is one of the biggest contributors to a building’s energy consumption and therefore its energy efficiency rating. Everything from computers to appliances and other equipment can affect the building’s energy consumption. When purchasing equipment, check the energy rating before making a purchase decision. The energy rating should be A and over to make an impact on energy efficiency.