Tips to Help Small Businesses Save Money on Electricity

Electricity costs for your small business are likely to be one of your biggest outgoings and whilst much of that spend is absolutely essential, there are still many ways in which you can take action to ensure that you minimize how much is being spent. The key to saving money on your electricity costs is to understand first where you are using the most energy, and then looking into ways in which you can use less. In collaboration with the great team at utilitybidder.co.uk, who have put together a brilliant ebook talking about how small businesses can save money on energy usage, we have put together some tips on how you can ensure that your own small business is spending less on electricity costs.

Light Bulbs

Unsurprisingly light bulbs are one of the biggest culprits when it comes to using energy and even more so if your business is open at night. A single light bulb will be on for over 40 hours per week in most small businesses and as such the costs can very quickly rise. There are 2 key factors here in saving money on lighting, the first is to encourage better practices from your staff, switching off lights when not in use, and the second is to replace the lightbulbs. Switching from a 60 watt bulb to an LED bulb is going to offer big savings and switching 25 of these bulbs will save you almost 300 watts of energy per hour.

Central Cooling Systems

Central AC is a necessity for so many businesses in order to make their staff and customers feel comfortable inside the business, not to mention the productivity benefits which a cool workspace provides. Naturally however this is going to be costly to run. To save money on your HVAC systems be sure that you have an up to date model, which is more efficient and more cost effective to operate. New AC systems may cost a lot up front but they can save up to 50% on the costs of an outdated system each month.

Desktop Computers

Most small businesses depend heavily on the use of desktop computers, which use around 300 watts each and every hour. To help minimize this spend you should be looking to use energy saving features on the desktop itself, as well as looking to ensure that they are switched off when not in use and at the end of the day. Switching to laptops can also provide a big cost saving to the business, regardless of whether you need portable computing or not.

Exit Signs

The devil is very much in the detail when it comes to saving money on energy usage and every little change can help. Take the emergency exit signs for example, a legal requirement which small businesses must adhere to, and a piece of kit which will cost almost $40 a year to run. You can however switch to more modern Exit signs which will run at just 12 watts per hour versus the traditional signs which use 40. Switching could save you almost 250 kWh a year.

Take action now and make sure that you are focused on saving your business money when it comes to electricity usage.