Tips to Make your Business more Energy Efficient

Tips to Make your Business more Energy Efficient

For many business owners, one of the monthly expenses that gives them the greatest sense of unease is their utility bill. It can be anxiety-inducing in its variability, and sometimes shocking in its ability to climb during the height of summer or depth of winter. There are, however, several simple tips that you can try in your business to increase your energy efficiency. If you are able to turn some of these ideas into a practice or routine, you may see your utility bill even out into a more predictable and manageable monthly expense.

Audit and amend the physical space

One of the first steps in improving your business’s energy efficiency is to determine where all that energy is going. The surest way to assess this is by having an energy audit done. With an energy audit, you will get a picture of what your baseline energy use is and suggestions for ways to save. Some electric utility companies will even provide this service free of charge. Once you have an idea of how energy is being used and/or lost, you can begin addressing some of those tangible problem areas in your office, like non-LED light bulbs or printers that hum along in standby all night. A very common issue for many businesses are inefficient windows. These can typically be remedied by sealing or weatherizing, or fully replacing old, leaky windows with energy preserving options like casement windows or storm windows.

Alter your habits

Now that you have fixed or replaced energy-draining lights, appliances, and completed your commercial glass repair, you can turn your focus to the daily habits you and your employees can adopt to create a sustainable, energy-aware practice that saves your business money. Some of these habits are very basic and are familiar in the setting of a person’s home, but don’t always translate to the office. It can be a simple practice to utilize more natural light from the windows and turn off the overhead lights when they are not needed. Similarly, you can rely on fans instead of air conditioning when appropriate, or open and close the window blinds to leverage or mitigate the sun’s heat according to the time of day and the desired temperature in the room. Further, you can turn off all computers and its peripherals when not in use by simply placing their plugs on an accessible power strip and flipping the switch. Some businesses will even go so far as to stagger heavy utility loads, such as a large printing project, to avoid peak demand times (typically 9am-5pm). And with any of these initiatives, it is important to have employees who are invested in becoming more energy-efficient in their work as well. Maybe your business can track the reduced energy consumption or cost-savings over time and offer kudos or incentives for your employees to keep up the good work.

Energy-efficiency can start with your windows

Dan’s Glass offers fast, professional service and in many cases, window installations can be completed in a single day. If you are looking to get started working toward your business’s energy-efficiency goals and know that repairing or replacing your windows is a key component, contact us to learn more about our commercial glass services.

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