
Business Energy Efficiency In Action
Being able to say your business is energy efficient sounds good, but business owners know that any investment without a strong return and a reasonable payback period is not overly enticing. Fortunately, energy efficiency in this province has proven time and time again to be a financially prudent concept with the help of the takeCHARGE Business Efficiency Program. The program can be beneficial to businesses big and small, across many different sectors. Let’s explore some of the ways in which making energy efficient changes have helped businesses in this province.
Energy Efficient Refrigeration
A project takeCHARGE’s Business Efficiency Program worked on in the past dealt with replacing 280 feet of open refrigerated cases with units that had doors. The doors kept the cold air in, the warm air out, and saved the food retailer involved with the project $32,800 annually. The project as a whole cost about $173,000 (with takeCHARGE providing a $31,000 incentive on that amount), making for a simple payback period of about 5.3 years (after incentive).
For a better indication of how this project might work for your smaller/medium-sized business, consider this: on a linear foot basis, the project cost about $623/linear foot with annual savings of $120/linear foot. Refrigeration upgrades make financial sense for a wide variety of businesses and community centers.
Energy Efficient Heating
Technological developments in recent years mean that not only are new forms of heating more energy efficient, they also allow for more comfort for customers than ever before. The takeCHARGE Business Efficiency Program is currently working with a service club to install ductless heat pumps to reduce heating costs and provide air conditioning for their patrons. The cost of the project is around $8,000, with annual bill savings at approximately $2,500. With a takeCHARGE incentive of $2,100, the simple payback period for this service club is around 2.3 years (after incentive). So after only 2.3 years, the project is fully paid for, and the savings of $2,500 goes back into the service club’s pocket!
Energy Efficient Lighting
takeCHARGE’s Business Efficiency Program worked with a furniture retailer to replace 516 halogen lamps (75 watts each) with 516 LED lamps (15 watts each) to improve illumination and save on energy. The cost of this project was around $18,500, but the annual savings were astounding – they saved approximately $8,900 per year, and they received a takeCHARGE incentive of $8,050. That adds up to a 1.2-year payback period – and that doesn’t account for all the money they saved on maintenance (an LED lamp can last up to 25x longer than an incandescent, so replacing them is far less frequent).
These are just a few examples of ways businesses have invested in energy efficiency with the takeCHARGE Business Efficiency Program in the past. If you’re looking for a way to cut costs at your business, big or small, call an energy efficiency expert and start to explore your different options.
Visit https://takechargenl.ca/business/ to learn more!