Do you want to reduce your company’s energy waste and power consumption cost? If YES, here are 20 energy saving tips for businesses and manufacturing plants.
Starting and running a business can be very challenging especially when dealing with the different bills and expenses that you need to constantly take care of. You have to think of how to pay your employees, how to offer them incentives that would keep them motivated and of course, how to cut down on cost of production so that your products can be sold at competitive rates in the marketplace.
However the most challenging cost you might have to deal with in your business place is cost of energy. Unlike in your home where you can easily reduce your energy consumption by deciding on which gadgets to use and which ones to avoid, energy consumption in your place of business is not totally up to you because your business must keep running at all costs and you can’t just decide to stop using important equipment.
However, there are some essential tips to reduce the energy you consume at your business place or factory so as to significantly beat down energy- related costs:
Energy Saving Tips for Businesses & Manufacturing Plants
1. Take Advantage of Off-Peak Periods
First, you have to choose a utility company that offers lower rates during off-peak periods. Then you should schedule the use of energy consuming machinery, and performance of energy-consuming tasks to hold at off-peak periods. This way, you would be able to reduce your energy bills without necessarily reducing your energy consumption.
2. Hire an Energy Audit Company
Energy auditors are specialists who are trained to look through your factory and offices, and come up with professional ideas for helping you cut energy consumption rates. Think of an energy auditor like a tax consultant who helps you figure out legal ways to cut down your tax rates.
Energy auditors can also look through your electricity bills to see if your utility company has been ripping you off, and proffer effective solutions to that.
3. Change Your Light Bulbs
If you are not yet using LED or CFL bulbs at your business place, you should consider changing all your light bulbs from incandescent bulbs to CFL or LED bulbs as they are designed to consume at least 75% less energy than conventional light bulbs. They also have a longer lifespan, which is a plus for your business.
4. Switch Off Equipment When Not In Use
You should encourage your employees to switch off all equipment that are not in use especially printers, computers, scanners, coffee machines and basically any equipment that makes use of electricity.
They should be switched off and unplugged from electricity outlets because they can still draw power when they are switched off but remain plugged in. You can also put a staff in charge of ensuring that all electronic devices are switched off, and unplugged especially during weekends and holidays.
5. Hire a Facility Manager
Sometimes, employees are too busy with work related activities to think of other things like energy conservation. You can hire a facility manager who would have the primary responsibility of ensuring that energy wastage is discouraged in your business place.
Your facility manager can go round the factory or offices a few times daily to monitor how energy is being consumed, and proffer immediate solutions to avoid further wastage.
6. Install a Programmable Thermostat
Get a thermostat that can automatically adjust itself to the current temperature of your workplace so as to avoid energy wastage.
7. Buy Energy Saving Equipment
When buying new equipment, make sure they are designed to conserve energy. Equipment manufacturers are becoming increasingly aware of the need for people to conserve energy at their offices and factories so they now make energy efficient versions of their products.
Look out for these versions anytime you need to replace or purchase new equipment and if you can afford it, you could change all your old equipment to new, energy efficient ones.
8. Use Renewable Energy Sources
Solar energy can give you a free source of energy that you can use without having to pay a dime. Consider installing a solar panel in your office or factory so that you can take advantage of solar energy instead of paying for electricity.
9. Encourage Work from Home Options
Rather than have your employees come to the office daily where they have to make use of your resources especially energy, you can encourage them to work from home, and come to the office on alternate days, or on days when it is really necessary for them to be physically present at work. This way, you would be able to save cost of energy, as well as some other utility costs.
10. Encourage the Use of Daylight
Discourage your employees from using light bulbs all the time. You can encourage them to use daylight as much as possible, and switch on light bulbs only when it is really necessary.
11. Go Paperless
You might not know this but processing paper costs your business a lot of money. Printers, photocopiers, and fax machines consume a lot of energy. You can completely cut out these costs by making your business an electronic one where you don’t have to make use of paper at all.
12. Install Good Insulation
During winter it can be very expensive to keep your office space warm especially when you are in a very cold and snowy city.
You can reduce your heating costs by investing in a good insulation system. Invest in wall insulation as well as ceiling insulation so that your offices can be warmer, and there would be less need for heating, saving you a lot of heating costs in the process.
13. Plant Trees around Your Office
During summer, trees can act as a shade for your building by blocking out the sun. Your offices would be cooler during the hot summer months, and you would be able to reduce the need for air conditioning thereby saving yourself some money as well.
14. Produce on Demand
You can also avoid energy-wastage by scheduling your manufacturing activities for times when you actually have sales demand for your products from customers. This way, you would be able to recoup your energy expenditure immediately, and also determine the cost effectiveness of your production process especially in terms of energy usage.
15. Optimize Your Air Compressors
According to a recent report, at least $3.2 billion dollars is wasted on energy costs in the US every year due to poorly designed or leaking air compressors. Check your air compressors, and ensure that they are not costing you more money than they should.
16. Use Motion Detector Bulbs and Automatic Dimmer Switches
Motion detector bulbs can be used as security lights instead of conventional bulbs. Motion detector bulbs would only come on when there is a human presence around the area.
This means that you don’t have to use security lighting that stays on all night and this saves you some energy costs. You can also install automatic dimmer switches within your offices so that the lights can be adjusted to suit the lighting needs of the office, and energy wastage can be significantly reduced.
17. Introduce Tea Rota
If you have your employees using the kettle or coffee maker at different times, you would consume too much energy. You can eliminate this needless energy wastage by encouraging them to make tea at the same time so that everyone gets a cup once the coffee maker is turned on, and the frequency of use would be significantly cut down.
18. Offer Incentives
You can get your employees to become more involved and proactive with reducing energy bills by introducing incentives. You can offer them cash rewards or introduce an energy jar where anyone caught wasting energy would have to drop some cash in it which the rest of the team can use to buy refreshments or use to have some fun.
19. Hold Virtual Meetings
If you often have meetings during weekends or after business hours, you can cut off the energy costs related to these meetings by holding virtual meetings where attendees can attend meetings without having to be physically present at the office.
20. Encourage the Use of Staircases
Elevators consume energy too and if your employees have to use the elevator multiple times daily, your electricity bills would shoot up. You can offer some kind of incentive to employees who choose to use the stairs so that you can reduce multiple trips through the elevator.
In conclusion, it is very important to carry your employees along, and let them understand how important energy conservation is to the growth and continued sustenance of the company. This way, you would be able to gain their cooperation and your energy conservation efforts would yield better results.