11 Oct 21
2nd Lockdown guide to supporting businesses.
By investing possibly one hour on your business, I believe you can make a saving on your energy when you are shutting your building down for ‘Lockdown 2’.
It doesn’t matter if you are a corner shop or an office block it all counts. In addition, I believe that this will create some learning for you going forwards, enabling you to make savings in the future.
As the UK and many other countries go into different levels of ‘lockdown’, I wanted to see if I could personally write a guide to “locking down” your business to maximise your gas, electricity and water savings. I have heard so many stories from the first lockdown that have impacted on businesses costs. The big difference this time is that we have a different season to contend with and shutting down your heating systems could really impact on burst pipes. Therefore extreme care needs to be taken with regards to your heating systems.
My ‘lockdown’ check list will take into consideration the seasonal change and I would strongly recommend that you engage with your maintenance teams or landlords to ensure that there is no detrimental impact on the building to shut it down completely.
Care and consideration needs to be exercised regarding this process. However, the fruits of exercising this process will also provide you with considerable savings.
- Lighting – ensure all areas have been turned off including cupboards, store rooms and plant rooms.
- Heating systems are programmed not to come on during the day unless there is a “frost protection” enabled. Where possible reset the set points to 19DegC this will keep the rooms and office spaces from heating up but will maintain some fabric protection.
- Cooling Systems should be switched off in areas where not required. For example – within office space where there is no activity. Check the set-points for server rooms and work with your IT teams to see if this can be increased.
- Where possible, shut off all water points to the toilets as the urinals do not need to be flushing regularly. If there are any leaks, they will then not be leaking whilst no one is there to be alerted.
- Computers and Screens – make sure all non essential systems have been shut down and there is no energy being consumed in these areas.
- Un-plug all photocopiers and printers and ensure that they are not set to stand-by.
- Un-plug all TV screens and ensure that they are not set to stand-by.
- Sales displays – ensure all these areas are shut down.
- Turn off all feature lighting and water features.
- Turn off all escalators.
- Empty all fridges and turn off all fridges where possible.
- If the fridges are open fronted make sure they are covered.
- Swimming Pools – make sure they are set-up and adjusted correctly. Ensure the ventilation is set correctly to provide minimum air flows and avoid fabric damage.
- Set your hot water timers to still come on daily but only for small periods of the day.
- Make sure all windows are closed and review and check that there are no drafts.
- Roof – carry out an inspection on your roof and make sure there are no leaks or water is not being captured on the roof.
- Double check guttering for clearance of blockages.
- Make sure all clocks and timers have been set and optimised.
- Do a final review on all bills and check your readings to ensure you have your 3rd largest costs under control.
- Once the building is closed, go to your meters and see if they have stopped. If they have not stopped you could have a problem.
- Turn off immersion heaters or hot water storage as this hot water will not be required in the remote areas.
- Make sure all kitchens are shut down and nothing is left on stand-by.
Finally, take meter readings and log the consumption readings and provide this to your supplier. Plan to do this every 2 weeks to maintain the energy consumption is dropping and there are no leaks. This will also ensure you have up to date billing.
If you do not have the confidence to shut your buildings down, contact me directly as I have contacts all over the world who would be happy to speak with you directly and support you in these times of need. This global network is always on hand to help.
These areas will help you support your building going into lockdown as well as coming out.
My costs to support business is ‘zero’ in these times. Unfortunately I can’t offer other peoples time for no cost, but phone calls or emails are always ‘free’.
Please take care and be safe in these times.
If you enjoyed reading this article or want to provide feedback, please contact Paul Webb at b2bmigrate.spinmeaweb.co.uk or send him a direct message. He will respond within 24 Hours.
The principles of this article come from my first book which is called “How to become an Energy Expert”. This is a very exciting time where we will be launching our new B2B Energy Experts Website full of Energy Insights and the start of a book ‘Trilogy’. More information can be found on our website b2bmigrate.spinmeaweb.co.uk
Thank you for following Paul Webb, B2B Energy Ltd and supporting us, stay safe.
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