HELP YOURSELF TO ENERGY SAVINGS
Lowering the cost of doing business
At the South Croydon Business Group meeting on Tuesday 2nd September Andrew Norman will be giving you ‘Top Tips’ for achieving energy savings in businesses (and indeed anywhere!). From simple things to consider to more adventurous options, do them yourself or for an even more cost effective solution engage Auditel the Outsourced Cost and Purchase Management experts. With costs rising it’s the right time to help yourself to energy savings.
Auditel’s unique, highly professional cost and purchase management consultancy is helping organisations in the UK and Ireland to reduce financial waste and, as a direct result, to improve their bottom line profits.
There’s no getting away from it: businesses are expensive to run. But, how do you keep your overheads under control without diverting time and resources away from your core business? The answer is to outsource an Auditel cost and purchase management consultant.
Costs we cover: - Auditel offers substantial savings on business essentials such as Communications, Energy, Business Consumables and Water and Sewerage. There are additional service areas we cover including Environmental management and Premises management.
A complex marketplace and a plethora of suppliers all claiming to offer the lowest prices and best service makes it difficult to know where to start when trying to manage these areas of expenditure. As a result the vast majority of businesses throughout the UK decide to opt for what appears on paper to be the 'cheapest' supplier'. Adopting this headline-cost model may seem logical, but it fails to take into account a wide variety of additional factors that contribute to the overall total cost of purchasing essential business overheads. Auditel have the expertise to help you control your business costs across the board. Our assessment can cover any area of expenditure. But we don't just find savings; we manage the service areas ensuring that you have the correct suppliers for your requirements.
______________________________________________________
Thank you for this opportunity to speak to the group. I’d like to spend a few minutes outlining how businesses even in these times of rising costs can ‘help themselves to energy savings’.
The ability to capture these savings and place them directly on the bottom line varies. It varies by the complexity and technical challenge of capturing the different opportunities, it depends on the nature of the business, the type of skills of its people and to a large extent the attitude of the management.
All the points I cover will reduce energy usage and costs. As with life in general you never get something for nothing and the type and amount of investment needed differs, making different points more of less attractive for different businesses. Auditel have experience in all the areas I’ll mentioned and more and I can tell you these will save you money if you implement them effectively having done your calculations both of the benefit to you and of the cost of achieving the benefit!
I’m going to discus:-
Energy contracts
Reducing consumption
Replacing inefficient equipment
Modifying supplies to match you needs.
Energy Contracts.
• Energy suppliers offer business customers the option of fixed term and or fixed price contracts.
• These enable businesses to lock in a price for their energy for a period of time.
• There are a number of variations available and every supplier sets, and changes their own terms ad conditions.
• It is essential to keep abreast of these to avoid getting into deep and expensive ‘water’; however these contracts can deliver significant savings over the ‘standard’ or ‘deemed rates’ that will otherwise apply.
• Whilst you can contract for different periods (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 years etc.) the most common trap is the auto renewal or rollover element at the end of your initial term.
• In addition there are a number of practices you should employ to ensure you secure the best prices.
• Prices will vary depending on the annual consumption (in kWh) you will take.
• However the date on which you ask for a price and indeed the time of the day, can effect the price available to you. You need to understand what a good price is at any particular point in time.
• This is a relative and not an absolute measure.
With attentive and careful management you can achieve significant benefit from having a contract.
• Savings of 40% are not uncommon.
• In addition many businesses find significant value in having price certainty into the future.
Reducing Consumption
Turning of equipment.
Everyone knows this is a good thing to do, but how good is it?
Computer Monitors
• A typical, if old fashioned computer monitor of CRT design might consume or run at around 185 Watts.
• This means that in 1 hour it uses 0.185kW or has a consumption level of 0.185kWh.
• In 10 hours therefore it uses 1.85kWh over night lets say it uses 2kWh. At 10p per unit (kWh) that’s 20p.
• In a year that comes to just over £70.00. If you have 10 monitors in your business that’s £700.00 a year you spend on simply running equipment when it’s not being used.
• Newer LCD displays use much less power and generally they have a sleep mode which they enter when no input signal is detected (when the computer has been shut down).
• This takes the power consumption down to a couple of watts which using the above scenario gives 80P a year.
• But check. Yours may not. Measure the power they take in all modes and set actions and policies accordingly.
Water Heaters
• Business premises can be used for a little as 60 hours a week (out of 168) or 35% of the time.
• If you have water heaters in say wash rooms, or for hot drinks do two things.
• 1) Ensure hot water temperatures are not set excessively high 1oC reduction saves 1.5% of the power.
• 2) For drinks facilities, consider a time switch set to turn them off at night and weekends i.e. for the 65% of the time nobody is there to use it!
Water.
Always worth checking.
• Water meters mean you pay for what you use / or rather what goes through the meter.
• Therefore Check to ensure nothing is being recorded when nothing is using water!
• If it is you have a leak which you are paying for!
• Water costs around £1.20 a cubic meter in, but you also pay to have it taken away at typically 90% of this price.
• If you don’t have it taken away you should not be paying for this.
• Many manufacturing processes require water in but don’t send it back our in the drains.
• They might send it our as steam or as part of the finished product.
• Where water is used the best way to receive cost savings is simply t reduce how much is used.
• Take the WC for example.
• A typical older cistern (before 1993) contains 9 litres of water. In fact only around ½ that is necessary.
• Saving 50% of 9 litres may not seem much but in some situations such are restaurants, Bars, Clubs the number of loo’s and their usage soon adds up and
• At 2p per flush can account for a big chunk of profit in a year. 10/1000*(£1.20 + £1.00)
• Fitting ‘Hippo’s can half that cost handing you back half your water bill!
• Other measures include aerator taps and shower heads and automatic time and usage based controllers.
Replacing inefficient equipment
Light Bulbs
• In office accommodation lighting can account for 30% of the electricity costs.
• Therefore ensure you have efficient light fittings and bulbs / tubes.
• Replace Tungsten light bulbs. Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs). CFLs use only 20% - 25% of the power of Tungsten bulbs for the same light level therefore savings of 75% - 80% can be achieved.
• At 30% of total cost this would deliver 25% savings!
• Similarly you should have strip lights checked.
• Using modern 26mm Krypton tubes in place of older 38mm Argon tubes will see savings of around 10%.
• Don’t panic and spend money changing every bulb out.
• Rather work out a replacement programme, speak with you maintenance company and get them to replace with efficient bulbs as old ones break.
• If lighting is your landlords responsibility mention it to them and ask for a rent reduction!
• Don’t forget to tell them that Auditel could help them with this.
Modifying supplies to match you needs.
Voltage Reduction Transformers
• This is technical but you can get your hands on significant savings.
• In essence the lower the voltage of your supply the greater the efficiency of power usage when you have ‘inductive’ loads. Inductive loads are things with electric motor in, fridges, freezers, air conditioning, lifts, Hoovers, fans, laths, etc. etc. and its because power is the product of voltage times current, or current squared time resistance or Voltage squared divided by resistance, and in ‘inductive’ use the voltage and current cycles are 90 degrees out of phase.
• The effect of this phase lag is that a lower voltage records less power, and you pay for power.
• The opportunity to reduce voltage comes from the fact that UK voltage levels are higher then the European standards and equipment will work at lower European levels.
• In addition the tolerances mandated for suppliers allow greater scope below the norm than they do above it.
• Finally the electricity supply is provided from the last substation at a level which ensures the furthest supply point has a voltage within the limits.
• As a result supply points nearer the sub station will have a higher voltage than the minimum.
• The bottom line is that installation of voltage reduction equipment can typically deliver savings of 12%
• and extend the life of equipment by lowering the voltage ‘shock’ or ‘tension’ the equipment has to run with.
• These devises are available and subject to certain rules grants can be available to fund the capital costs.
• Payback is typically 36 months.
Match usage profile with tariff profile
• We all know of economy 7 electricity and that this gives electricity at night at typically half the day time cost.
• BUT what’s the point of having economy 7 if you don’t use any power at night!
• In fact its worse as the day time price for economy 7 is normally slightly higher than the unit price for a 24/7 tariff!
• Check when you use power. Check the daily profile, the weekly profile and importantly the seasonal profile.
• Remember Economy 7 cheap period is midnight to 7:00. Not in the evening!
• For example if an economy 7 day time tariff is 10% more than a straight 24/7 tariff and you don’t use power between midnight and 7:0 am them by switching to a 24/7 tariff you will be helping yourself to a 10% saving.
• A seasonal tariff could see you saving considerable amounts if your use is ‘reverse’ seasonal.
So in summary: -
DO
• Ensure you have a good contract in place and that its managed.
• Check dormant power consumption on computers and other equipment and develop ‘turn off’ policies or implement auto arrangements where power use s material.
• Check light fittings and bulbs are efficient.
• Consider voltage reduction and seek advise
• Not forget water which can leach your profits away
DON’T
• Rush around changing out everything before you have calculated the cost benefit
• Ignore your business overheads, they can kill you business r with help might just save it!
• Leave it until tomorrow………….
FINALLY
• Auditel provide a unique service as your cost and purchase managers.
• We don’t take commissions form suppliers we work for you and can offer no win no fee terms.
• Our interests are aligned with your interests.
• Our expertise could help you to energy cost savings, just as we are doing for thousands of businesses across the UK and Ireland and
• just as I do for business owners in the Croydon and South East areas.
• You and your clients have everything to loose by ignoring overheads and everything to gain by discussion opportunities with me.
Thank you.
