13th January 2012
Businesses that want to cut down on their energy expenditure this year may find that installing LED lamps will have a significant impact on their utility bills.
According to Dr Paula Owen, director specialist at PaulaOwenConsulting.co.uk, it is "absolutely within their interests" for companies large and small to look to efficiency measures, including insulation, heating, air conditioning and lighting.
"If it's bigger businesses that are caught by the CRC, (the carbon reduction commitment), then of course now that is a straight tax on energy use, it makes even more sense for bigger business to be concentrating on reducing energy usage as much as possible, [in order] to reduce the tax they owe," she commented.
"That is an added incentive to look to becoming more energy-efficient and using less in their day-to-day activities."
Dr Owen noted that this year's buzzword for firms tackling their energy consumption is 'resilience'.
"People are more and more talking about resilience, being more resilient and being more resilient in terms of being energy-efficient. That helps you reduce your bills so you're not going to be shocked at the end of each quarter, when you get your fuel and heating bills through."
She added that this resilience also applies to where businesses source their raw materials or components from, as any disruption to the supply chain could result in rising costs for firms.
Indeed, switching to energy saving LED bulbs could work out cheaper in the long run for firms, as research from Barclays estimates that LED chip and component average selling prices fell by between 30 and 40 per cent in 2011, and the trend is set to continue this year.
"Energy efficiency in the UK [is crucial] definitely, because of the state of fuel bills at the moment and for bigger companies that are caught by the carbon reduction commitment," Dr Owen added.
Back to DIY and Home Furnishing
News