Save Energy, Save Money - Three Cost Effective Ways to Save Energy in Your Property

Good Real Estate management should be about providing an excellent level of service, but sometimes the services offered have to be cut according to the budget available.

If you run a property whereby costs are recharged to the tenants, your occupiers will not thank you for spending more of their money unnecessarily and worse still under many leases a landlord may not even be able to recover certain expenditure if it relates to items of improvement.

So how can changes be brought about that will ultimately reduce energy use in a building complex or office building, and therefore bring cost reductions to the utility accounts, particularly if a capital expenditure is required to alter a property?

Firstly, it is sensible to look at measures that will reduce energy without increasing costs.

A good example is with space heating. By setting the thermostat one degree lower for an eight hour period saves about one percent of the heating bill. For common parts, like stairways, considering reducing by five degrees so that they are still warmer than the outside, but not so warm as to encourage occupiers to stop and chat in the corridors. If the thermostat allows for different temperatures at different times of the day, set the night time periods to be cooler than those in the day time. If there are areas of a building that are not occupied ensure that heating and lighting is turned off in these areas.

A second way to save energy is to ensure proper and regular servicing of plant and machinery. Whilst maintenance visits are a cost, they are essential for good management and should help ensure a longer life for the parts and a more efficient use of energy whilst they are in operation.

Thirdly when obsolete equipment reaches the end of its operational life, replace it with new energy efficient alternatives. A simple example is that of light bulbs and fittings that will through the normal course of events wear out. Having a maintenance plan that replaces these as they fail, with new energy saving alternatives should satisfy the need to control expenditure whilst providing energy savings for the longer term. Depending on the cost of the electrician or engineer who carries out this work there may be cost benefits in replacing a number of fittings at the same time, particularly if there is a call out premium to be paid. However this work is carried out, if there are a large number of fittings involved make sure a good record is kept of which ones are new and when they were replaced. This can help support the decision to change and to monitor the cost savings achieved.

With small planned changes it is therefore possible to start to introduce energy savings to a property or real estate portfolio without large one off expenditures.

Simon Murray is a Real Estate Professional specialising in Green Property Management as well as running a directory of Serviced Offices.