Larger businesses can often handle heavy overhead costs, but small businesses need be careful about their energy and utilities costs. This is especially true for businesses operating in the industrial sector. Heating, energy, electricity, and other utilities can come with heavy costs, so it is vitally important for business owners to learn how to cut costs wherever they can. Since operating in the industrial sector comes along with lots of energy usage, this is the most important place to trim fat from. To do this, you should employ the four tactics below to help your company save on energy costs each year.
Develop an Energy Management Team
First, small business owners should try to have an energy management team who can focus on identifying problems and coming up with solutions for energy management. This team will be constructed of representatives who have knowledge in various areas of production practices and executives who want to keep costs low. These representatives can work together to monitor the energy usage from your operations and institute changes to reduce energy waste. Consider offering a bonus to this team as an incentive to drive energy costs down. This will help your whole business to cut costs.
Ensure Timely Maintenance
Timely maintenance will keep your machinery work as long as possible, and having these machines work to their full capacity can ensure that you’re getting every last bit of production out of the energy you use. When your machines are not properly serviced, this can result in more energy usage to produce the same number of products. Also, it can lead to costly breakdowns. Do yourself a favor and hire contractors to perform burner service and optimize your air compressors to ensure they remain in tip-top shape. This will ensure that your production keeps up with your business needs.
Evaluate Your Energy Costs
Take time to evaluate your energy costs and take a second to look over your HVAC system. You may be wondering what your HVAC system really has to do with energy consumption, and the truth is that your HVAC system likely makes up over half of your building’s total energy consumption. This makes it a significant player in racking up your electric bill. Consider making your HVAC system more efficient by installing programmable thermostats, ceiling fans, and insulating ductwork. The smallest of changes can have incremental results down the line and are definitely worth exploring.
Undergo an Energy Audit
Finally, get an energy audit. While this can be performed by one of your in-house professionals, we highly suggest hiring an outside auditor, whose job is to evaluate your production process and energy consumption. An outside auditor can be valuable in bringing you a new set of eyes and they can also make recommendations on how to improve your system and introduce you to new production equipment you may not be aware of.
Saving on energy costs should always be an ongoing goal for businesses in the industrial sector, and, thankfully, there are many different ways to approach the issue. The above four are great areas to start with, as they make up the majority of your energy consumption, so changes in these fields should translate to big energy cost savings.
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