SMALL BUSINESS RESOURCES

Setting your thermostat 1°F higher can save you up to 3% on your cooling costs.  Compact fluorescent lamps cost 75% less to operate than inefficient incandescent lamps.  ENERGY STAR® qualified refrigerators and freezers can reduce energy consumption by over 45% compared to conventional models.  Setting your water heater even 10°F too high can cost you hundreds of dollars per year.

Small Businesses – Simple Tips to Help You Save Energy and Enhance Cash Flow

Small businesses present unique opportunities and challenges for saving energy as cash flow is a critical concern and in-house time and expertise to investigate and implement energy saving opportunities are often limited.  The tips presented below are relatively simple and low-risk with the potential to yield significant returns.  Additional suggestions for larger opportunities if you are ready to invest more time and money into your projects are available in the Commercial and Public Building Energy Savings Guides.

Small Business Energy Savings FAQ:

1. What simple steps can I take to improve the performance of my heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system?
2. How can I reduce my lighting costs while maintaining an adequate level of illumination?
3. Are there easy ways to reduce energy usage from my office equipment?
4. How can I both save water and reduce the energy I use for water heating?
5. My facility uses a lot of refrigeration and food service equipment.  Any simple tips for me that I can implement quickly to reduce energy use?
6. Are there any incentive programs in my area that can help me offset costs?
7. My company has already implemented many of these simple tips and is ready to do more.  What should I do now?
8. I want to save money and energy but am concerned about cash flow.  Do you have any resources that can help me make smarter decisions about potential energy saving investments?

1. What simple steps can I take to improve the performance of my heating, ventilation, and air conditiong (HVAC) system?

• Just like your car, your facility’s HVAC system needs regular tuning and maintenance to operate efficiently.  Depending on the size of your system, regular maintenance by a qualified HVAC technician can be relatively inexpensive and can save you money while extending the life of the system and increasing occupant comfort.  Consider having the system serviced prior to both the heating and cooling seasons.
• During peak heating and cooling seasons, consider changing (or cleaning) filters monthly.  Dirty filters degrade indoor air quality and make your equipment work harder.  New filters are inexpensive and can pay for themselves quickly in energy savings and improved indoor air quality.
• If you set your thermostats manually, install an ENERGY STAR qualified programmable thermostat that will allow you to easily save money by automating your system.  Set-up your system to reduce cooling and heating loads when the facility is unoccupied while maintaining comfort levels by automatically having the system turn on prior to the arrival of occupants.
• During the heating season, promote solar gain (natural heat) in your building by opening blinds on the south and west sides of the building to allow direct sun through the windows.
• If your cooling bills are high in the summer, consider applying after-market solar films to your windows to reduce heat gain from sunlight.  It’s better to block solar gains from getting past your window than to try to block it with interior blinds or drapes.  Refer to the Building Shell Energy Savings Guide for more information on solar films for windows.  Depending on the orientation of your building you may also be able to make easy gains through the installation of an awning or by planting appropriate vegetation.
• Keep exterior doors and windows closed as much as possible when running your HVAC system.
• Use fans to move air, enabling higher temperatures and humidity levels to feel more comfortable.  In particular, if you prefer to keep windows and doors open to attract passerbys on the street to your shop or because you just like fresh air, the use of fans can significantly cut your HVAC system costs.
• Increase your set point temperature on your programmable thermostat in the cooling season.  Setting your thermostat 1°F higher can yield up to a 3% savings on your cooling costs.
• If you feel drafts in your facility, attempt to plug air leaks with weather stripping and caulking.

2. How can I reduce my lighting costs while maintaining an adequate level of illumination?

• Turn off lighting when not in use. It sounds obvious, but it’s the simplest way to quickly save energy.  Consider tasking an employee (or yourself) with being responsible for making sure everything is off when parts of your facility are unoccupied.
• If manually turning off lights is too time consuming, install occupancy sensors in proper locations to automatically turn off and on lights based on the presence of people.  If properly placed, occupancy sensors can turn on lights as a person approaches or enters an area to maintain safety.
• Take advantage of natural daylighting in your facility.  Turn lights off or down when enough natural light is in your space or install automatic daylight dimmers that will adjust your artificial light levels as natural light varies throughout the day.
• Avoid over-lighting an area.  If your employees are complaining of glare, eye strain, or getting headaches, you may have too much light in your workplace which can negatively impact occupant comfort and cost you a lot of money.  If you have multiple lamps in a fixture, consider unscrewing one and re-checking the level of light.
• Take a look at your exit signs.  If they use incandescent bulbs, consider replacing them with ENERGY STAR® qualified exit signs that use less energy and require less maintenance.
• Have you noticed your overhead fluorescent (tube) lights humming or flickering or do you have a lot of them?  Grab a ruler and measure their diameter.  If the tube diameter is 1.5 inches, you have inefficient T12s installed that are costing you a lot of money.  Go to the Lighting Energy Savers Guide (link to 9.2.2) to learn more about replacing your T12s which are likely using magnetic ballasts with more efficient T8s or T5s with electronic ballasts.

3. Are there easy ways to reduce energy usage from my office equipment?

• If you are considering a new equipment purchase, select an ENERGY STAR® qualified product
• Turn off equipment when not in use for an extended period of time.  Consider tasking an employee (or yourself) with making sure that all of your equipment is completely shut down when you leave for the night.
• If you have equipment that you only use occasionally (such as a projector or monitor in a conference room), unplug it completely to prevent it from drawing energy while not in use.
• Encourage your employees to use the power management software that is available on most computers.  Screensavers do not save significant energy.  Computers and monitors should be set to go into low-power states or to go fully to sleep after specified periods of inactivity.  If not running computers after hours to perform backups or updates, employee computers should be completely shut down when employees leave for the day.
• Use the automatic settings on your coffee maker to ensure that heating elements are not operating during off hours (or unplug it at the end of the day).

4. How can I both save water and reduce the energy I use for water heating?

• If you have a dishwasher at your office, only run full loads to save energy and water.  Consider washing individual needed items by hand instead of running partial loads.
• Fix leaks as soon as you identify them.  Small leaks can turn into bigger problems and can waste a lot of water and energy (associated with water heating) if left unresolved.
• If your water heater is more than seven years old, wrap it in a water heater insulation blanket.
• For both new and old water heaters, wrap the first few feet of the hot water out pipe with insulation to improve efficiency.
• Avoid overheating your water.  Most hot water applications only require water temperatures between 110°F and 140°F so check the setting on your water tank.  Overheating water by as little as 10°F can cost you hundreds of dollars per year if you use a lot of hot water.
• If your small business has landscaping, consider practicing Xeriscaping to reduce water requirements.  Refer to the Water Conservation Energy Savings Guide (link to 9.2.7) for more information.

5. My facility uses a lot of refrigeration and food service equipment.  Any simple tips for me that I can implement quickly to reduce energy use?

• If making a new purchase, select ENERGY STAR qualified equipment.  According to ENERGY STAR®, qualified refrigerators and food service equipment can save over 45% of the energy used by conventional models with potential savings of:
  • $100-$150/year for refrigerators and freezers
  • $50-$200/year for deep fryers
  • $200-$300/year for hot food holding cabinets
  • $450-$800/year for steam cookers
• Clean the coils of your existing refrigeration units at least twice per year to improve air flow and increase heat exchange efficiency.
• Refrain from overloading your units.  Disrupted airflow can decrease the efficiency of your system.
• If you have multiple partially loaded units, see if you can combine your inventory into fewer units allowing you to unplug wasted capacity.
• Try placing a dollar bill in the closed door of your refrigerator or freezer.  If you can easily pull it out with the door still closed, you door gasket needs to be replaced.
• Large refrigeration systems (including walk-ins) should be serviced at least annually to top off refrigerant levels, adjust belts, lubricate moving parts, and clean system components.

6. Are there any incentives in my area that can help me offset costs?

• Use the Energy Action Planner to identify incentive and rebate opportunities in your area that may match your needs.

7. My company has already implemented many of these simple tips and is ready to do more. What should I do now?

• There are numerous opportunities for small businesses to save additional money and energy if they are willing to invest some time and money in the process.  Visit the Commercial and Public Building Energy Savings Guide for more information on the next level of savings opportunities. Once you’ve reduced your business’s energy use, consider offsetting the rest through the Colorado Carbon Fund, a voluntary carbon offset program.
• Many communites have sustainable business programs available. These programs will not only help you reduce your energy usage, but many of them will also help you communicate your actions to potential customers.  Check out the Colorado Carbon Fund Web site for a list of current programs across the state.

8. I want to save money and energy but am concerned about cash flow.  Do you have any resources that can help me make smarter decisions about potential energy saving investments?

• Cash flow is a critical concern for all small businesses.  The ENERGY STAR®  Cash Flow Calculator is designed to help decisonmakers determine:
  • How much new energy efficient equipment can be purchased from anticipated savings?
  • Should I finance the purchase now or wait and use cash appropriated in a future budget?
  • Am I losing money by waiting for a lower interest rate?
• You should gather basic information on your annual utility bills, available interest rates from third party lenders, and potential energy savings from the new equipment prior to using the spreadsheet.
• If you are looking for free confidential counseling and training programs on how to more efficiently operate your small business, visit the Colorado Small Business Development Center.

More information:
Energy Efficiency Guide for Colorado Businesses.