Energy Saving Ideas For Your Business
The five major areas where energy is used in your building are lighting, building envelope, HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning), hot water and machines. You might be surprised at just how much you save.
Lighting
- Replace all T-12 fluorescent lamps and magnetic ballasts with T-8 lamps and electronic ballasts. You could use up to 25% less electricity.
- Replace all incandescent pot lights with compact fluorescent lamps and your energy consumption could be reduced by up to 70%.
- Replace all incandescent exit sign lighting with LED (light emitting diode) bulbs. They use up to 90% less energy and last up to 10 years, saving you a great deal.
Building Envelope
- Check all doors and windows for air leakage, re-caulk and replace weather stripping if required.
- Fix doors, windows and loading dock doors that don't fit tightly or close completely.
- Check insulation levels in all outside walls, ceilings and foundations and upgrade if necessary to R40 ceilings, R20 walls, R30 foundations. Better insulation keeps the heat in and the cold out in winter, and the heat out and air conditioning in during summer.
HVAC
- If your heating system needs replacing, upgrade to a high efficiency model, which can save up to 25% on your heating costs.
- Set heating thermostats to the task. The more physically active the tasks, the lower the thermostat can be.
- Set cooling thermostats to the task. The less physically active the tasks, the higher the thermostat can be.
- General rules are to turn it off (if not needed), run it less, make it more efficient.
Hot Water
- If your hot water heating system needs replacing, upgrade to a high efficiency model.
- Reduce the heat loss in the system, upgrade your water heater and pipe insulation.
- Reduce domestic hot water temperature setting to 50 degrees C (120 F), tank thermostats are usually set higher than needed.
- Look for ways to reduce hot water use, such as installing flow restrictors, aerators, self-closing faucets and occupancy sensors (for automatically turning faucets on/off).
Commercial Machines
Commercial machines are defined as any piece of equipment needed to operate your business, from computers to fans to motors. Because of the many possibilities, depending on the nature of your business, we are providing some general rules that apply to all machines:
- If not needed, turn it off.
- Adjust controls to a temperature, speed, or other setting that uses less energy and still does the job.
- Use your machines efficiently, for example, load it to capacity rather than do partial loads.
- Keep all machines properly maintained, at top efficiency.
- Replace worn out machines with the most efficient models, always a good investment.
- When buying any new major piece of equipment, look for notices that indicate the manufacturer has met federal government energy efficient criteria.
Your pocketbook and the environment will thank you.
