Commercial property owners juggle a myriad of responsibilities – from construction projects to insurance concerns, tenant leases and maintenance and repairs. With so much to do on a daily basis, managing costs and expenses becomes one of the most important tasks on a day today basis. Keeping costs as low as possible is one way to seeing positive growth and a healthy bottom line.
Saving energy is a significant way that property owners can manage costs at their buildings. Just as a homeowner can make a few changes and save on their utility bill, a business owner can make some changes and decrease their monthly expenses. If you own a Sarasota area apartment complex, office building, or shopping mall – here are some ideas to lower your costs.
- Upgrade Your Lights: With so many people using the building, imagine how often lights are left on when they don’t need to be? Lights represent one of the major monthly expenses for business owners, but also offer one of the best ways to slash energy bills. If your lighting systems are more than a few years old, or if you have problems with flickering lights or tripped circuits, it may be time to upgrade. While a new lighting system with modern bells and whistles such as motion sensors may cost some money, it should pay for itself rather quickly. If you would like to find out if your office or complex would benefit from an upgrade to your lighting system, call a local commercial electrician.
- Utilize Energy Saving Devices: Make sure that all of your devices, from computers to printers, are set to take advantage of their energy-saving features. Most will offer the ability to “go to sleep” if they are not in use, with screens going dark and saving energy whenever they are not in use. Don’t take for granted that these settings will work forever – be sure to check once a month or so to make sure the settings have not been overridden, and causing excess power drain.
- Look at Your Data Center: Computer equipment not only takes up a lot of space and consumes energy, but also requires a hearty air conditioning system to keep them cool. If you do not have an in-house IT team, you may wish to call in an IT consultant to help you determine if some or all of your data center operations can be moved to the cloud, or even outsourced. Although there are costs involved with those options a swell, it is worth investigating to see if you can save real estate, air conditioning usage and energy consumption by moving some of your processes to the cloud or offsite.
- Speaking of Air Conditioning…: Talk about a drain on your expenses! Keeping larger commercial property cool for your tenants requires a lot of power. If your A/C system is not working efficiently, you could be needlessly wasting energy and money every single day. Because the A/C is a requirement year-round in the Sarasota area, maintaining your HVAC units in top form may be one of the most significant things you can do to save on your energy bills. While looking at your A/C systems, also invest in smart thermostats which can be controlled by management to avoid tenants turning the air down to polar because of personal taste.
Promise Electric is the Sarasota area’s premier electrical services company for both commercial property owners and residential clientele. If you are a home owner, business owner or property owner – call today for a consultation and inspection. We will provide all the recommendations you need to be energy efficient.
