BESA Says Building Owners are Missing out on ‘Easy Energy Savings’

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07 December 2022

Thousands of commercial and residential building owners are missing out on easy low-cost ways to improve energy efficiency, according to BESA.

The association also welcomed Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s announcement of an additional £6 billion from 2025 for energy efficiency measures in his autumn statement, but feels that “more ambitious” financial incentives and policy measures would also be needed to deliver the scale of building upgrades required to properly address energy costs and climate change.

 

UK Businesses Missing Out Due to Lack of Energy Efficiency Awareness

 

BESA’s comments are in light of new data from the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) which found that UK businesses and homeowners were missing out on over £3 billion worth of savings every year due to a lack of energy efficiency awareness and financial incentives.

Turning down thermostats and heating flow temperatures, having boilers and other plant serviced, improving insulation, and replacing inefficient lightbulbs with LEDs are all quick and easy measures that are not being widely adopted.

The “Powering Energy Efficiency” report published in collaboration with the pump manufacturer Grundfos found that 14 per cent of businesses have either never had a boiler service or have not had one in the last five years, despite three-quarters of business owners saying they wanted to make their heating system energy efficient.

20 per cent of business owners admitted they had not had an energy efficiency audit for more than five years, and some had never had one.

 

Check Eligibility for Business Grants and Support

 

Only 37 per cent of the 500 respondents said they checked their eligibility for business grants and only 32 per cent would seek advice on how to improve energy efficiency. Instead of improving building performance, some are looking to reduce overheads by cutting staff numbers and wages, with others making more people work from home.

“It is very frustrating that businesses are considering taking such draconian steps when improving building energy performance can be done quickly by adopting a series of relatively simple and low-cost measures,” said BESA Chief Executive David Frise.

“A basic audit of your building services will identify where small improvements can make a significant difference – and many of those steps are completely free, such as adjusting flow temperatures and tweaking thermostats. Just having neglected equipment serviced is another basic step that will provide an instant return.”

Picture: a photograph of an open plan office showing several work stations. Three people can be seen working on a table at the centre of the image, using laptops. Image Credit: Unsplash

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 07 December 2022

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