Ways to Cut Energy Costs in Your Business
6 Ways to Save Energy Costs in Your Business
Saving energy is one of the biggest ways to save money at home or at the office. When you own a business, you have to think about many things from employee and client issues to overhead costs. One of the most significant ways to put extra money in your pocket, though, is saving on energy costs. Your water, heat, electricity, and cooling bills can all be reduced if take a few simple steps.
1. Get rid of those old fluorescent lights. Those big old tubes in the ceiling are costing you a lot more money and wasting energy. Switch to LED tubes or LED lamps around the office. Your eyes and your wallet will thank you.
2. Make a habit of switching off major equipment when it’s not in use. If you only use your printer or that ancient fax machine once in a while, don’t just turn them off, pull the plug or flip the power switch at the power strip. Ghost power eats up a lot of extra volts and it’s the one place where you can save some extra dollars.
3. Install an automatic thermostat. Don’t leave the heat running high all night just because someone will be in early. Instead, install an automatic thermostat system that you can program to go down to a cooler temperature at night and then starts to warm up an hour before everyone comes in for work.
4. Make your overall at work temperature lower. If you have a busy office, setting the thermostat above 70 might be more heat than you really need. A lot of people will run hot and others will run cooler. However, the more bodies in an area, the less heat you need to run. Try and keep the office at a lower temperature, like 65 degrees Fahrenheit and if you can, purchase everyone a lightweight jacket with the company logo in case they get chilly.
5. Buy energy efficient devices like LED monitors for computers or better yet, smaller laptops, that are quick to charge and don’t need to run constantly like large desktop computers and big monitors. For those folks that really need extra power, like graphic designers, invest in energy efficient equipment with the EnergyStar logo.
6. Get an energy audit. Call the utilities you use and have them come and look for leaks in window frames and insulation issues or other areas where you could save energy and money.