Government legislation should make commitment count

Last month George Osborne unveiled his third annual budget, which was met with some controversy. However for many businesses concerned with energy management, the chancellor seemed to ‘speak on behalf of the people’ by recognising the negative impact the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRCEES) has had on UK industry.

Through the usual heckles and jeers of the opposing members of cabinet, George labelled the scheme as “cumbersome, bureaucratic” and something that “imposes unnecessary cost on business”.
And I must admit that I couldn’t agree with Mr. Osborne more.

As the name suggests, the Carbon Reduction Commitment was initially set up by the government to ‘COMMIT’ to working with businesses to achieve the set climate change targets for 2020 and 2050. The legislation was enforced by the previous government and affects roughly around 20,000 businesses across the UK. It originally intended to penalise bad energy management and incentivise the good, but was that ever really what it was going to achieve? And what’s more recent changes to the scheme made the processes even more complex which became an even bigger burden on businesses.

The introduction of the CRC League tables encouraged companies to install Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) devices and invest in this type of technology to meet standards defined by the governing bodies, but as many of us know this alone does not solve the problem of energy inefficiency, rising carbon emissions and increasing energy costs… It takes much more.

I don’t blame the business community for seeing the scheme as yet another financial obligation, when you strip out the political jargon this is exactly what it is. Think an additional employer tax like National Insurance contribution and we are closer to what CRC is – a tick box exercise known to only the few in the company that need to know, therefore having little to no impact at all! I also think that the CRCEES has become more of an additional and unfair levy to businesses that operate in the higher threshold of energy use – which is not helpful at all, especially in the current financial climate.

In order for energy management to be successful, it needs to be sustainable. And the only way of achieving sustainability is to make sure there is a clear ‘want’, ‘need’ and ‘drive’ to doing it in the organisation.

I would hope this latest example of yet another unnecessary and non-achieving scheme has clearly shown the powers-that-be they MUST consult more closely with the business community and the experts to create something that actually helps our economy as well as the environment.

Dear Ed…

Watching the news last week about the resignation of Energy Secretary Chris Huhne, I wondered how new-boy Ed Davey’s quest to continue ‘taking up the challenges’ of Huhne’s ‘Green Economy’ would affect businesses in the UK. And whether building-efficiency has moved higher up the Government’s agenda.

As you’d expect from a new Minister, much of what the Energy Secretary has had to say has been fairly general, citing ‘climate change’ and ‘energy security’ as two of his main targets. But with the Government’s aim to reduce carbon emissions by 34 per cent by 2020, a mere blink of a decade away, it’s how he intends for UK plc to meet this challenging target that intrigues me most.

Firstly he needs to encourage businesses to ‘listen’ to their buildings, as each one of them has a unique ‘story’ to tell.

A utility company recently collected data from 6,000 smart meter readings across the UK, which showed that in fact nearly half of business electricity use (46 per cent) happens outside the traditional business hours of 8am – 6pm, highlighting that £1 in every £2 could be saved.
And cost savings will become even more important to businesses this year with predictions from leading financial institutions only last month indicating that the UK could be headed for a double-dip recession.

Research demonstrates that on average 30 per cent of electricity consumption can be saved by using a building energy management system (BEMS), such as that provided by t-mac. As we have always highlighted a significant chunk of this saving is from ensuring equipment is not running after hours, when building occupiers often assume that building equipment and facilities know to ‘wind down’ and ‘switch off’ as people do.
So while Mr Davey gets his feet under the DECC table and works out exactly what his priorities are we’d love to invite him along to t-mac HQ in Derbyshire for a crash course in the vital importance of building-efficiency in the bid to combat climate change.

With the media’s energy gaze firmly on wind power and solar energy he could be forgiven for thinking renewables are on the only show in town. To coin a phrase, our message to our new Minister, Ed Davey is that by underestimating building efficiency he will only add fuel to Britain’s already-roaring fire!

Lisa

12 tips for 2012

With 2012 now in full swing, I thought I’d highlight a few useful tips worth thinking about as we embark on what has been forecast to be quite a difficult start to the year. I’ve put together some simple tips with a little assistance from the Carbon Trust to help you work with your staff and your building to achieve significant reductions to your annual energy spend:

Tip 1:   Make sure you remind your staff to ‘Switch Off’ at the end of the day
Work with your staff and colleagues to introduce an energy efficient culture in your business. Educate staff to ‘Switch Off’ all non essential equipment whenever practical; including monitors, light switches and air conditioning units.

Tip 2:   Make sure heating and cooling do not conflict
Ensure windows and doors are closed when heating or cooling systems are in use and only operate one system at a time. Don’t heat and cool simultaneously.

Tip 3:   Turn it down a notch
Lowering set points by just 1oC can potentially reduce your annual heating bill by up to 8%, so reduce the temperature on the thermostat down to the minimum comfortable level.

Tip 4:   Maintain your heating system
Regular maintenance of boilers, heating and cooling systems can save up to 20% on your fuels costs. It is recommended that you maintain your boiler at least every 12 months.

Tip 5: Keep on top of your housework!
Cleaning windows and skylights regularly allows you to take maximum advantage of the amount of daylight that enters the building, significantly reducing the need for electric lighting. Cleaning of luminaires, especially reflectors and panel diffusers, improves their performance.

Tip 6:   Make sure warm air is moving
In commercial or industrial buildings with high ceilings, the temperature generated by warm air heaters will tend to be warmer towards the ceiling rather than where your staff are below. De-stratification fans can reduce energy use by 20% by blowing warm air down to ground level where it’s needed.

Tip 7:   Make sure staff are using kitchen equipment efficiently
Kitchens consume a lot of energy, and much ends up wasted. Educate staff to switch on kitchen equipment only when it’s actually required, particularly in industries like hospitality where kitchens are in regular use. Labelling equipment with preheat times can help employees think efficiently. Ensure staff switch off grills, fryers and hobs immediately after use, along with lights, air conditioning units and extraction fans when they are not being used.

Tip 8:   Keep your cold areas cool!
For companies in industries involved with refrigeration and cooling, ensure you develop a culture amongst staff to minimise the loss of cold air from areas that need to be kept cold like beer cellars, walk-in freezer/fridges and store rooms. Keep doors closed and minimise the amount of times they are opened. Strip curtains can be used to help keep cold air in.

Tip 9:   Use energy efficient machinery
Whenever you hire equipment, try to make sure it is energy efficient. Avoid inefficient oversized machines, try to minimise the time it is left on for and use appropriate power settings.

Tip 10:   Install occupancy sensors
Occupancy sensors can dim or switch off lighting when there is no one there and they can reduce electricity use by 30%, or even more. They are a great way to make sure your lighting is being used only when people are in the building.

Tip 11:  Think about the free resources you already have
Many rooms also enjoy the benefit of natural light from windows and/or roof lights. Daylight sensors, or photocells, adjust the artificial lighting according to the amount of daylight, reducing energy use by as much as 40%.
And finally…

Tip 12:   Make energy management fun!
Anything that feels like a chore will never catch on. Make sure you use colourful signage and light-hearted imagery to remind your staff to cooperate with more gusto! Digital dashboards and interactive software packages can also help increase productivity in this area. It might also be worth generating friendly competition by splitting your staff into teams to work towards achieving set targets, with small regular prizes for the winning teams.

Best of luck and let me know how you get on!

Lisa

Shed those excess £s in 2012

Let me start by wishing you all a very happy new year.

Every year people make ambitious resolutions such as stopping smoking, exercising more often and losing weight after that hearty Christmas dinner. However well intentioned they may be though most resolutions are forgotten come mid-January.

If you haven’t decided what your resolution for 2012 will be yet then we have a suggestion. Why not make it your resolution for 2012 to shed some pounds, from your energy bill that is!

In the current economic climate, and despite rising electricity costs, many companies continue to throw money down the drain due to the inefficient use of energy.

Not the best strategy in the midst of the current economic turmoil!

Equipment sitting idle and running up costs, heating and air conditioning fighting against each other, and lighting being left on overnight or even at weekends, are just some of the common energy wasters that we have encountered.

While examples like this may seem rather insignificant, the full impact of this inefficient use of energy will only be truly felt when that energy bill arrives.

Businesses can make real savings by identifying energy reduction opportunities and taking action to ensure they are only using the energy that they actually require.

Why not make 2012 the year you take control of your energy consumption and trim that excess weight off your energy bill!

Lisa

All I want for Christmas is...

Reduced energy bills!

As you will have noticed winter is upon us yet again so with the night’s drawing in and the temperature dropping, we instantly head for the thermostat to make sure we’re toasty warm at home, in the car and at the office.

But it’s important to remember that turning up the heat in your building can also burn a large hole in your pocket as increased use of energy impacts on your bottom line.

Christmas does not need to be costly.  Here at t-mac we are always looking for ways to help businesses identify and reduce unnecessary energy consumption; so why not follow our festive tips, to try to ensure that your energy bill doesn’t give you frost-bite when it arrives! 

1 – Optimum start: Use pre-set timers to warm up the building before staff arrive which will make it less likely that staff will turn the heating up to excessive levels when they begin work.

2 – Temperature: Communicate with your staff; remind them not to tamper too much with the heating set-points as they will acclimatise to it; alternatively lock-out the wall controller or thermostat.  An ability to increase temperature set-points often results in Caribbean temperatures which, if left at this setting, often have some staff reaching for the air conditioning while the heating remains on!

3 – Windows and doors: Is it really cold in your building or could you quite literally be throwing your money out of the window? It may seem obvious but a lot of the time people leave windows open letting all the warm air out.

4 – Lighting: Make as much use of the daylight hours as possible by keeping your curtains and blinds open; his will reduce the temptation to reach for the light-switch before it is necessary. Also remember to make sure the Christmas lights are turned off at night.

5 – Staff awareness: Encourage your staff to wear extra layers of clothing in the winter months. It is a cost-effective way to keep staff comfortable while keeping your energy costs down.

We’d like to take this opportunity to wish you a very happy Christmas and an energy-efficient New Year!

Lisa and the team

A new dimension in energy management ‘solutions’

We had a great time at the Energy Event in Birmingham in September before moving on to the Energy Solutions Expo in London this month where we gave visitors the chance to ‘touch’ base with the future of energy management and take an interactive tour of the full t-mac range. 

Using touch screen technology, we showed visitors at these two important events how t-mac can help companies manage and control energy consumption, achieving energy savings of up to 40 per cent and a return on investment in 12-18 months.

It was at these shows that we unveiled our new alerting, floor plan and mapping technologies and enjoyed demonstrating the software to the many visitors to our stand during the two-day events.

Using the floor plan portal, businesses can upload graphics of buildings, individual floors, rooms and equipment while receiving real-time energy consumption data from the t-mac unit installed at each site.

The software provides maintenance personnel with a unique overview of energy consumption across the site while highlighting areas which may require attention during necessary service checks. The software can also be used to upload equipment schematics, enabling engineers to assess equipment performance and use easily and interactively.

The addition of a new, innovative ‘mapping’ feature to our Building Management Systems software will offer a visual representation of a user’s sites enabling companies to monitor their facilities efficiently. By highlighting equipment errors staff can respond to faults quickly and rectify them.

At the Energy Event we were also delighted to provide a special presentation to delegates in the ESTA seminar hall where we discussed ‘Applying Key Energy Saving Technologies’ and how building energy management systems (BEMS) can help businesses to reduce the cost of building operations.

And now it is time to give our feet a little rest until the next one.

Lisa
 

You’ll never guess what we did this summer...



Although the great British summer was a little bit of a damp squid, the lack of continuous sunshine didn’t impact the fundraising spirits of the t-mac team! In a bid to enjoy the outdoors as well as raise money for good causes, the team decided to take on Kinder – which at 2,087 feet is the highest mountain in the Peak District a whopping 636m above sea level!

Fortunately (or unfortunately) for the 17-strong team, we had chosen a rare day when the sun was out! Nevertheless, we donned our hiking boots and met at the car park close to Edale station ready for the challenge just after 2.30pm. After a quick stop at the local shop for a few last minute supplies, we began our route in an anti-clockwise direction along Pennine Way.

Our first challenge was to navigate the tough incline through Sheepfold up to Grindslow Knoll – we were glad to get this steep bit out of the way at the start of the walk especially with the sun beating down on us!

The walk through Edale Head to Kinder Low, along the tops of the mountains, was quite a gentle one except for a few boggy bits and the need for some rock climbing! Thankfully, we had ‘Scout Leader’ Ian (our own Captain Scott) to help us all conquer the big rock at the top.

From Kinder Low we began the descent back to Edale through Jacob’s Ladder, Sheepfold and Upper Booth. At this point we thought all the scrambling was finished and we could leisurely stroll to the finish line. Unfortunately, the route back into Edale was not flat – one final hill stood in our way as well as fields full of sheep and lambs!

We gave a big sigh of relief when the finish line came in to in sight and once we crossed it headed to The Old Nags Head Pub in Edale for a well-deserved drink or two! It took us around three and a half hours to complete the 10k trek and we raised £1,500 for charity - a great way to spend a summer’s day!

Lisa