It may surprise you how big the payoff is for taking small measures around your company’s building to become more energy efficient.
A Mississippi city kicked off the new year by approving energy efficiency measures that are estimated to save it more than $60,000 a year on utility bills.
Vicksburg’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved a $2.4 million contract with Jackson-based Path Co. LLC to improve energy efficiency. The energy savings will pay the cost of the loan, Vicksburg’s mayor said in a report released on Jan. 13.
Many other cities have found that maintenance, particularly with HVAC systems, have produced dramatic reductions in energy costs.
Penn State University has a population as large as many U.S. towns. In the mid-1990s, faculty members of this growing community realized that the campus’s greenhouse emissions told an alarming story, according to an Oct. 2019 report.
Here are four easy steps to take to begin making major changes in your workplace:
1. What is being left running at night?
Preforming an audit to find out what has been left on is an easy way to find major energy wasting issues. Every employee needs to be aware of their contribution to your company’s energy usage; especially when there are weekends, holidays, and other long periods of time when the workspace is not in use.
2. Is there a reason that light is on?
Generally, we have a tendency to turn on lights in a room out of habit or because we think that this is the building’s protocol. However, natural daylight can pour into a room and sufficiently fill a space with enough light. Encourage your building’s personnel to use light when necessary and utilize natural light whenever possible.
3. Setting the thermostat
Does your building’s thermostat remain at the same temperature all day and night? Set the thermostat back when your building is unoccupied. Make sure to calibrate thermostats, ensuring that their ambient temperature readings are accurate. To verify that the entire system is working efficiently, clean the evaporator and condenser coils on heat pumps, air-conditioners, or chillers. Dirty coils reduce heat transfer.
4. Is everyone in your building aware of how they contribute to energy usage?
You may be the most knowledgeable person in your building about energy saving efforts and what to do to reduce energy usage. Educate employees and reward energy-efficient behavior to better engage with others around your building. Reducing energy usage works best when every employee is actively aware and participating in the efforts being made in the workplace. Host a competition for the building for the greatest improvement in energy performance or throw a pizza party for a collaborative effort to reduce energy usage over a period of time.
The small steps that you take today will lead to noticeable changes to your monthly energy costs. Start by taking the smaller steps and making everyone in your building aware of what they contribute to energy usage. Maintaining good habits will keep energy usage down and ensure that change is permanent.
