How an energy efficiency assessment can benefit your business?
Is your company taking advantage of all available opportunities for success?
Monitoring and reassessing your energy efficiency measures can uncover new opportunities for cost savings and reduced overhead, increase employee productivity, and improve your company’s environmental performance.
With that in mind, we explain what energy efficiency assessments entail and how they can support your business goals.
Multivolt Services can help you to carry out all the suggested amendments
WHAT IS AN ENERGY AUDIT OR ENERGY EFFICIENCY ASSESSMENT?
An energy audit is a thorough, outside-to-inside, room-to-room examination of your company’s current energy efficiency and usage practices.
See here for more information from the Qld government
You will have heard of a “star” rating – You see them on your appliances to know how energy efficient they are.
Well new homes and even new renovations and extensions are required to meet requirements to keep your home or workplace as energy efficient as possible. Based on this getting a report or audit done and the savings you are seeking, a customized plan can then be developed that focuses on cost-effective solutions to maximize functionality and efficiency while minimizing your company’s energy consumption and costs.
What does this include?
An energy efficiency assessment could include reviewing past energy billing data – for example, the last 12 months – and checking for processes that use a lot of energy. This could include using meters to record your company’s energy use at different times of the day, week, month or year.
A comprehensive assessment could look at metrics such as energy use relative to production output and include benchmarking performance to see how processes or business units perform. Then, once you have strategies in place, your expert can continue to track your progress and record improvements.
Australian standards for Energy Audits
If you have a formal assessment conducted by an accredited auditor, they should ideally conduct assessments to applicable Australian standards, such as AS/NZS 3598.1:2014 Energy Audits – Commercial Buildings.
In addition, Australian Standards energy audits fall into three categories: basic energy audits, detailed energy audits, and precise subsystem audits.
The first two types of audits are suitable for small to large businesses.
In contrast, the third type of audit is ideal for larger businesses with specialized equipment or large manufacturing facilities. To find an accredited energy assessor, you should first search the Council for Energy Efficiency website.
Let us see how can an energy efficiency assessment help your business succeed.
1. LOWER YOUR ELECTRICITY COSTS
Reducing your electricity and operating costs is the most obvious justification for an energy efficiency assessment. By reducing costs, you can improve your profit margins and profitability.
Your energy efficiency assessment can show how your business currently consumes energy. It does this by breaking down consumption to individual devices and examining workplace design as well as employee behaviour.
The assessment might help you devise precise measures for lowering your electricity bill significantly. For example, building design can reduce cooling and lighting costs by planting trees for shade and using skylights. Getting your electrician to install programmable thermostats, upgrading to an energy-efficient or solar water heater, switching to LED light bulbs and using light switches with motion sensors can also help your business save.
Properly maintaining the office and encouraging employees to develop energy-saving habits are other possible suggestions that can come from an energy efficiency assessment. In addition, an experienced electrician can suggest other strategies, such as identifying and eliminating phantom loads (the electricity consumed by electronic devices such as clocks and microwaves when they are not in use).
2. IMPROVING EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY
Clean, efficient buildings can increase employee productivity. Using your energy efficiency assessment’s insights and improvement strategies, you can create a cleaner, healthier workplace to increase employee productivity. For example, more responsive and energy-efficient temperature control can ensure employees are at an optimal temperature, which helps them focus.
Similarly, a clean, green approach to maintaining high indoor air quality can positively impact employee productivity. Employees are better able to make decisions in indoor spaces with increased air circulation (more outdoor air is supplied), lower sources of volatile organic compounds, and lower carbon dioxide levels. In general, a healthier workplace could lead to happier employees, who tend to be more engaged and productive than unhappy employees.
3. REDUCE YOUR COMPANY’S IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT
An energy efficiency assessment provides valuable insight into creating an environmentally friendly business. Your company can dramatically reduce its impact on the environment and conserve natural resources by doing so. Simple changes like installing solar water heating systems will lower your gas or electric bill.
More extensive changes like installing solar panels can also lower your electric bill and give your business a green image that boosts your reputation and brand appeal. Consumers are often environmentally conscious and prefer to buy from companies with green practices. Finally, your energy efficiency rating can make your business more sustainable and less dependent on natural resources and costs that could increase due to climate change.
4. CAN INCREASE THE MARKET VALUE OF THE OFFICE BUILDING
One of the results of a professional energy efficiency assessment is that the recommendations can increase the market value of your office building. If your company owns the building, you may be able to sell it for a higher price. On the other hand, you can likely realize higher rental income and lower the vacancy rate if you decide to lease it. This could be due to your tenants having lower operating costs, which in turn brings benefits such as sustainability, better quality jobs and higher team productivity.
USE ENERGY EFFICIENCY ASSESSMENTS TO IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS
An energy efficiency assessment by a qualified, accredited energy auditor could lead to significant energy cost savings.
In addition, you could find ways to increase employee productivity, reduce your company’s environmental impact, and even increase the value of your land and building. So the value of an energy efficiency assessment goes beyond ongoing energy cost savings to marketing benefits for your business, achieving sustainability and increasing property values.
Looking to improve energy efficiency in your business?
Multivolt Electricians can help. We have industry-leading electricians with extensive experience in commercial and industrial facilities and solar installation and maintenance. We can help you inst.all energy and cost saving lighting – See our post about LED Lighting Swap overs.
Contact us now to discuss our services.
