How to reduce your energy costs and save on your electricity or gas bill

These six simple steps could reduce your energy consumption and save you money, no matter what your business.

1. Appoint an energy champion
   Assign a role to one person who will take responsibility for creating and implementing an energy management plan.
2. Understand your Electric Ireland bill
   Learn more about your electricity or gas bill (for ROI customers only) and understand the basis for your charges.
3. Monitor your usage
   Ensure that your appointed 'energy champion' reads your meter regularly and chart your electricity usage patterns. Helpful information on how to read your electricity meter and gas meter is available on our website.
4. Review your operations
   Look at the way your business uses electricity and think about implementing energy-saving alternatives. A professional energy audit will show you where you're wasting resources and show you how you can cut costs.
5. Plan and implement improvements
   Set energy efficiency targets for your business. And develop action plans to help you and your staff work towards these targets.
6. Monitor and review progress

Get your staff involved and keep their awareness and enthusiasm up. With everyone's co-operation, you should see a decrease in your energy usage and your bills.

Below, you’ll find some energy saving tips to help your business work efficiently and save you money:

• Lighting
  
  1. Replace existing lights with energy efficient alternatives.
  2. Install occupancy sensors to make sure lights are not left on unnecessarily.
  
  
• Heating
  
  1. Reducing heating levels by 1°C overall saves up to 8% on energy costs - but do not reduce your heat to a level that causes discomfort.
  2. Use heating controls effectively - only heat areas that are occupied, and turn down the heat outside business hours.
  3. Insulate the building.
  
  
• Heating, ventilation and air conditioning
  
  1. Coordinate your air conditioning and heating to avoid wasting energy.
  2. Don't put heat-generating equipment near air-conditioned spaces.
  
  
• Compressed air
  
  1. Consider switching from compressed air equipment to an electric equivalent.
  2. Reduce pressure to the minimum acceptable level in order to reduce your energy consumption and costs.
  
  
• Motors and drives
  
  1. Purchasing or changing over to an energy-efficient motor makes sound business sense.
  2. You should fit automatic controls including timer switches, load sensors and thermostats to improve efficiency.
  
  
• Refrigeration
  
  1. Check your equipment for anything that may prevent it running efficiently, such as gas leakage, ice build-up or damaged door seals.
  2. If possible, leave products to pre-cool before going in the fridge or freezer.