Partner Article

No Two Small Businesses are the Same…

Last month saw the 11th anniversary of Small Business Advice Week, which connects small businesses with useful advice on how they can hone their operations. At this year’s event I was once again struck that term ‘small business’ covers what is actually a very diverse bunch of organisations. This diversity makes it difficult to provide off the shelf ‘solutions’ to meet their operational requirements.

This is particularly true when it comes to energy efficiency, as the measures a business can take will depend on a wide range of factors including the size of its premises, how many people are employed there, how many rooms are in regular use, the age of the buildings they use (and whether they are listed), the hours employees work, etc., etc.

So here, as a last salute to this years’ Small Business Advice Week are some tips for three specific types of small business;

Retail

Switching off equipment - Keeping stores bright and appealing helps draw customers in but consider lowering lighting levels for stock taking, replenishing and cleaning.

Occupancy sensors which turn on lights when someone is there are particularly good for stockrooms and toilets and could achieve savings of up to 50% on lighting costs.

Pub

The energy used for cooling beverages in a typical pub is in excess of 10% of the total energy cost, and approximately half of this goes into cellar cooling. Savings of 10-50% can be achieved by improving the cellar layout, installing insulation, replacing lighting and checking refrigeration equipment.

Hotel

Regular cleaning of ventilation systems can increase efficiency by as much as 25% compared with un-maintained systems. Dirty or faulty fans, air ducts and components directly affect system efficiency and will increase running costs and risk of breakdown. The performance of the whole system should be reviewed annually and replacement parts ordered as necessary.

Whatever your business there will be tailored measures that you can implement to drive efficiencies and save money – find out today what those could be.

Stats available from http://www.npower.com/business/save-energy/eco-town/

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Phil Scholes .