Business news and advise

Everyone these days is taking a second glance at their utility bills and starting to consider alternative options to lower them. Companies are trying to find ways to cut costs without cutting their staff, benefits, or pay packages. Energy bills have been rapidly increasing and causing even large companies to start thinking of ways to reduce them. If you are trying to save on your company electric bill, here are a few ideas to consider:

A typical building will use most of its energy for heating and cooling purposes. This usually accounts for about 45% of your bill. Since this is the biggest controlling factor, it is a good place to start.

If you can not afford a large scale building management system, try programmable thermostats. Programmable thermostats have been noted to save users up to 30% on their heating and cooling costs. These little devices allow you to program its setting to automatically adjust the temperature at certain times during the day and also when the outside temperature changes. To get the most bang for your buck, look for the Energy Star label on thermostats.

During the summer, you can make use of fans to keep the air flowing. This will make the room feel cooler and allow you to keep the thermostat at a slightly higher setting. Every degree you can keep the temperature setting higher in the summer and lower in the winter will add up to significant savings.

Lighting is another huge chunk of your energy bills, particularly in large business that use a lot of lights or offer 24 hour service. While CFL or LED bulbs are initially much higher in cost than traditional bulbs, they will last up to ten times longer and use 75% less energy! In the end, you will be more than getting your money back out of these light bulbs.

If you are serious about reducing your energy costs, you will need to reach for higher hanging fruit and you should hire a professional energy auditor or engineering firm. Your utility company may even provide a high level energy audit for no initial cost. An auditor or engineer will do a thorough inspection of your entire business and find ways to shrink your utility bills by eliminating unnecessary energy usage and waste. This could prove to be one of the most valuable steps you ever take to reducing your energy costs.

The energy cost center is the easiest to positively impact on any company’s P&L. So get started today!

LEED Certified and Green Technology, Energy Edge Technologies can help save your Industrial, Hospital, Grocery Store or any other high energy commercial buildings massive amounts of money! We Take A Full Facility Approach or call 888-729-5722 Ext. 100.

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One of the hottest topics at the moment regards our impact on the environment. As such, we are all looking at ways to cut back on the amount of energy we use. As with many things, this energy conservation begins at home. Here is a selection of top tips to help you cut down accordingly.

Two of the biggest wastes of energy in the home are inefficient use of heating and cooling systems so, as a first step, ensure these are well maintained. Secondly, try notching your thermostats down a degree or two; you shouldn’t feel the impact too much physically but you sure will financially. Also ensure your air conditioning unit has good airflow, and any obstructions are removed.

Household appliances are also big users of energy, notably washers and dryers. Ideally, washing should be line dried in the fresh air. This obviously is a big saver, but also adds certain freshness. If the dryer does have to be used however, try and do loads so that one load goes in as soon as another finishes. This helps to retain heat in the dryer and saves energy.

Another appliance that eats up energy is the refrigerator. There are not too many people that clean the rear of their refrigerators all too often but, if this is done weekly or at least monthly, dust will be kept to a minimum and the refrigerator will operate much more efficiently. Also, the seal around the doors should be checked often to ensure there are no leaks wasting energy.

Ovens and stoves should also be well maintained; dust, grease and grime reduce efficiency and vary the cooking temperatures produced dramatically. It is also worth having a thermometer to use in an oven to get the exact temperature, as LED displays are not always accurate. A side benefit of the thermometer is that you will likely find that your food cooks better.

These are only a few basic steps to help get you started with home energy conservation. Once started, you are sure to find many other areas you can cut back on or make more efficient. Not only are you helping to do your small bit for society, but your bank balance will look a whole lot better too.

Save Money On Your Company’s Energy Bill, visit Energy Edge Technologies site for strategies on saving a tremendous amount of capital on your Corporate Energy Bill or call 888-729-5722 Ext. 100.

Hospitals and Medical Centers have many opportunities to significantly reduce and manage their energy costs while maintaining or even improving patient care and comfort.

Healthcare facilities are significant energy consumers, typically using an average of 28 kWh and 110 cubic feet of gas per square foot. HVAC (including cooling and space heating) represents about 62% of hospital energy use with lighting comprising 13% more. Focusing on these two areas with their combined 75% of total energy usage is very useful for developing an energy efficiency plan.

However, knowing where to focus does not mean it is always clear exactly where to start. By taking a carefully planned “whole facility” approach, it is easier to feel confident that you are making the best, most financially and operationally prudent energy efficiency choices for your unique facility. In today’s industry there are proven and recommended engineering approaches and technologies available that can guarantee results. And by working with an experienced, energy services company or engineering firm, choosing the right options does not need to be complicated.

The best first step is always to focus on quick, low cost or no cost solutions. This can include training staff to turn lights off when they leave unoccupied rooms, using sleep mode settings for computers when not in use, shutting off AHUs that serve unoccupied areas at night such as cafeterias, offices, conference rooms, etc, using programmable thermostats in rooms and areas not occupied 24 Hrs / day to turn up or down temperatures in different seasons, and having the HVAC systems serviced and cleaned on a regular basis. After you’ve addressed the “low hanging fruit”, next steps can involve choosing from a variety of longer term options that are designed to deliver much greater energy savings. Options should be considered based on their proven track record of success, whether they are “Approved” or “recommended” by organizations such as Energy Star, US DOE, USGBC, IEEE, etc., their cost effectiveness and return on investment as well as consistency with your hospital’s goals and culture Experience has shown that some of the better programs for hospitals include lighting upgrades to high efficiency fluorescent, CFL and/ or LED, use of occupancy sensors and day-lighting opportunities , sine wave modification for lighting circuits, liquid pressure amplification for central chiller plants, energy management based on occupancy, anti-compressor short cycling for roof top units, demand controlled ventilation, use of variable frequency drives and possibly equipment replacement for older systems that are approaching the end of their useful life. As you move forward with this, it helps to know that you don’t have to do it alone. There are experienced firms who can help make recommendations and provide turnkey services for you. In choosing a partner to guide this type of “whole facility” approach for you, it is important to look at a number of factors. You may want to ask the following: What is their level of experience using these various technologies, do they use proven and recommended approaches, what are the credentials of their staff, are they members of key industry organizations, what is their level of knowledge of your industry, do they offer a free initial evaluation and do they offer guarantees at each step of their process.

And remember that the sooner you begin, the sooner you start saving your hospital’s valuable and limited resources.

Save Money On Your Company’s Energy Bill, visit Energy Edge Technologies site for strategies on saving a tremendous amount of capital on your Corporate Energy Bill or call 888-729-5722 Ext. 100.

There are plenty of things you can do to demonstrate better energy efficiency. Everyone knows the big ones such as recycle and turn off the lights. But there are other small things that can really add up. They may seem odd or like slight inconveniences, but the small magnitude of the inconvenience will completely disappear once it becomes a part of your regular schedule.

The first thing is to unplug all chargers when you are done with them. Many people have their cell phone, camera, or MP3 chargers in the same spot, always ready to go for convenience purposes as we are all always rushing out the door. However, leaving something just simply plugged in can drain electricity and at the same time serves no purpose.

Another thing would be to car pool or take public transportation. These are likewise inconveniences to many people, especially on days when they are running late. However, sticking to a schedule like this may actually make you more punctual and aware of your time. It also can be much cheaper for you. Your car will last longer and your petrol bill will go way down.

You should also start recycling the little bits of plastic you may not even realize can be recycled. For example, many people just throw away the plastic trays from TV dinners. This is hugely impractical, since they can be easily rinsed out and recycled.

Many people throw away lots of little bits of paper like sticky notes, or bits of plastic, like from a candy wrapper. This plastic is merely going to sit in a land fill. Why not put it to good use? These things all add up, so we need to be smart about them. If everyone merely took a step back and looked at what they were really wasting–and knew the life of an object after it was thrown away–people would save so much more in terms of recycling and reusing

Save Money On Your Company’s Energy Bill, visit Energy Edge Technologies site for strategies on saving a tremendous amount of capital on your Corporate Energy Bill or call 888-729-5722 Ext. 100.