Energy conservation

Help the environment and reduce your energy costs.

Why conserve energy? Firstly, it reduces your energy costs. Secondly, it reduces the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and hence slows down the harmful effects of global warming. It also helps the UK attain its targeted reductions in carbon emissions. Energy Efficiency is now a fundamental part of the UK’s Energy Policy and the Government's Plan for Action to save 12 million tonnes CO₂ by 2010 — worth £3 billion to businesses.

On average, the costs of utilities account for between 5% and 10% of an organisation’s annual budget. However, it is much greater for manufacturers and other heavy energy users. Energy conservation can not only help the environment but it can also help improve your organisation�s bottom line.

The best ways to conserve energy are generally as follows:

closely monitor your gas, electricity and water consumption by installing smart meters or smart data loggers — you cannot control what you cannot measure;
carefully analyse the consumption data, looking for inefficiencies;
have an energy conservation survey carried out by an expert;
set up an internal energy management team, with energy champions in each department and support from top management;
set up a monitoring and targeting (“M & T”) programme for energy and water consumption;
using data from the smart meters, bring in experts to investigate the inefficiences exposed by the data;
take action to implement the recommendations of the experts;
consider joining a Climate Change Levy (CCL) exemption scheme;
consider using some form of renewable energy.

Business Cost Consultants can provide you with independent advice on all of these.

Our expert consultants help clients reduce their energy and water consumption. Water is worth considering, since electricity is used to process and to transport the huge volumes of water used in the UK.

If you are interested in reducing your electricity, gas, LPG or water consumption, please contact us.

Once we understand your particular concerns and your patterns of energy (and water) consumption, we can arrange for a survey to be carried out and provide a written report on how to reduce your consumption in the future.

For medium-to-large consumers, there are grants available which will normally cover the whole cost of the energy conservation survey, the report, and the consultant engineer’s time. We can help you with the whole process and can inform you quickly if you are able to benefit from the available grants and soft loans.

As utility auditors, we can help you to reduce not only the consumption of your gas, electricity, water and LPG, but also the costs of your energy and water.

Smart data loggers

If you cannot measure it, you cannot control it. Therefore, we recommend that most of our clients install smart meters or smart data loggers.

Business Cost Consultants will work with you to identify the most suitable consumption monitoring solution for your organisation. We will arrange for a number of reputable suppliers to carry out free surveys and provide quotations for the installation of smart data loggers or smart meters. We will then evaluate the quotations and recommend the supplier who offers you best value for money. The payback is normally measured in months, rather than years.

The smart data loggers can measure consumption of energy, water, LPG and other fluids (such as fuel oil). They can also be used to record environmental factors such as outside temperature, ambient temperature, pressure, water temperatures at boilers, temperatures of domestic hot water supplies, temperatures inside fridges and ovens. In some cases, the devices can also be used to switch machinery on or off. Hence they can react to environmental factors by switching something on or off.

We will normally only recommend smart data loggers which are approved by the Carbon Trust.

Analyse and report on consumption data

Consumption data from your smart data loggers can be fed to a website where sophisticated software can help our experts to analyse your particular data. The analysis will reveal patterns of consumption which lead us to think that energy or water savings can be achieved on your site(s).

If you have many sites, we can use the software to compare the performances on your sites in league tables. We can measure energy/water consumption per unit of production if you are a manufacturer, or can measure energy consumption per sale or per square metre if you are a retailer or hotelier.

Arrange for an energy conservation survey to be carried out

We can arrange for most organisations to have free energy conservation surveys carried out by consultant engineers who are authorised to carry out such surveys. We can help you fill in the application forms and apply for grants and soft loans. The soft loans can be used for purchasing approved equipment and services, such as smart data loggers and energy or water saving devices. Such equipment is normally subject to Enhanced Capital Allowances. That means that they can be written off against profits in the year of purchase.

The expert who carries out the energy conservation survey can help you to set up an Energy Management Programme within your organisation.

Set up a monitoring and targeting programme

We can assist you and your Energy Management Team to set up a monitoring and targeting (M & T) scheme within your organisation. That may be required of you if your are in a Climate Change Levy (CCL) exemption scheme. Even if you are not, it will help to focus the team on reducing energy and water consumption.

Send experts to your site(s)

Over the years we have come across many organisation which have had free energy conservation surveys carried out and large reports produced. Only a small percentage of those organisations have actually implemented any of the recommendations made by the energy conservation experts.

Our system is much more pro-active. Armed with the energy and water conservation reports and the data analysis from your smart data loggers, we send experts on to site to investigate practical ways to reduce energy and water consumption. That has enable us to achieve saving of up to 67%.

Those could be experts in boiler or lighting controls, water conservation experts, rainwater harvesting experts, voltage optimisation experts or power factor reduction experts.

Since we are paid out of the savings we achieve for you, we always have a strong incentive to maximise your savings.

Implement the recommendations made by the experts

Once we find out how it is possible to reduce your energy and water consumption, we can obtain quotations from a number of reputable contractors who will be able to implement the recommendations of the experts.

We will ensure that you get best value for money and the quickest return on your investments. We have years of experience in this type of procurement.

Consider joining a climate change exemption scheme

The Climate Change Levy (CCL) is a tax which has been applied to the cost of energy consumed by businesses and other organisations since April, 2001. The theory is that people and businesses will choose to conserve more energy if the unit cost is increased. Your business may be eligible for discounts of up to 80%, which we can help you achieve. We can help you identify your eligibility for exemption schemes and help with the paperwork and the data gathering.

Consider using renewable energy

One way to save energy is to invest in renewable energy sources such as wind turbines, solar heating, solar panels, heat pumps or geothermal energy. Combined heat and power plants (CHP) may be suitable for our site(s). Feasibility studies need to be carried out. Planning regulations need to be considered and of course you need to know the likely return on your investment. We can help with all of these.

UK Emissions Trading Scheme

The government released a White Paper on energy in May, 2007. Of particular relevance to larger organisations is the proposal to introduce a mandatory emissions trading scheme for those companies that have an energy demand of more than 6,000 MWh across their portfolio The scheme will see total allowances capped and additional allowances sold by auction, in order to promote the reduction of emissions.

Inclusion in this scheme may well be advantageous to our clients since, as part of our comprehensive service, we make recommendations for a programme of energy reduction. We would also be pleased to assist you with managing the emissions trading scheme.

Energy Performance of Buildings

On the 4th January 2003, the Directive 2002/91/EC of the European Parliament and Council on the energy performance of buildings took effect. The objective of the Directive was to raise awareness of energy use and efficiency in buildings and is intended to lead to substantial increases in investments in energy efficiency measures within buildings.

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