When you consider how energy is consumed in your business, it is likely your mind is drawn to the obvious areas such as air conditioning, heating, lighting or any large piece of equipment. However, business practices along with the habits and routines of the people working in the operations can often have a sizeable impact on the size of energy bills.
The recent quarterly Energy Efficiency Trends report from EEVS shows that Behaviour Change is the third ranked initiative that businesses implement as part of their energy efficiency drives.
Energy Monitoring to reduce energy consumption
Behavioural change to reduce energy consumption doesn’t just happen haphazardly. It is the result of planned actions that are driven by data collected and analysed on your business’ actual energy consumption. Effective behavioural change starts with knowing how, when and where energy is being consumed in your business. Energy consumption is often invisible until it either appears on bills sometime later, or you see the live analytics from real-time energy monitoring. To understand energy use, real-time, minute by minute monitoring of energy consumption is essential.
Real-time, minute by minute energy monitoring systems; such as Eniscope, the best in class real-time energy monitoring solution used by SMARTech energy;
- Gives 24/7 monitoring of energy consumption and quality.
- Is engineered to allow continuous, remote monitoring with data being able to be viewed in real-time on any computer, or across a range of mobile devices.
- Provides accurate measurement of up to 30 electrical parameters and can read existing meters (e.g. gas and water).
Combining the analytics from the energy monitoring with the data from in-depth audits of a business’ premises and operations enables energy consultants such as SMARTech energy to truly understand HOW, WHEN and WHERE energy is being used and most importantly wasted. From this, energy reduction plans can be developed and at SMARTech energy we often find that significant savings can be made from simply changing operational practices and routines.
Energy Savings at Bex Design & Print
Bex Design and Print are screen and digital printing specialists based in Calne, Wiltshire. SMARTech energy were engaged by Bex Design and Print to undertake Energy Management Survey. We installed real-time, minute by minute energy monitoring and carried out an in-depth site audit. From this we identified the potential for Bex Design & Print to make a sizeable reduction in its baseload electricity consumption (i.e. the amount of energy consumed out of hours or when the business is at its quietest).
Our Energy Consultants then investigated Bex Design & Print’s baseload consumption. Drilling down into this data we identified that making changes to close down routines would result in big energy savings. The procedures recommended by SMARTech energy yielded a massive 60% energy reduction during out of hours periods. In addition Bex Design & Print also reported a reduction in servicing costs and machinery downtime.
Our case studies here tell the story of how we helped reduce the energy consumption in more depth. If, like Bex Design & Print, why not contact us to find out more about our Energy Management Surveys. As a Carbon Trust Accredited Supplier, we can also help most business access a 30% capital grant (up to a limit of £10,000) towards the cost of energy saving projects. Please contact us through our website or call us on 01225 635660.
