Commtech - Putting energy advice into action

21 October 2008

As a company that is always advising our clients on ways or reducing energy consumption we have recently turned our attentions to our own offices.

Having conducted a full energy audit of our premises we have put a number a energy saving initiatives into action.

We have upgraded the building with a new “Warm Roof” construction greatly improving the structures thermal properties. We have also installed two highly efficient replacement condensing boilers, and as part of this upgrade have re-assessed our heating strategy moving away from inefficient heat pumps to a more traditional wet system, with thermostatic valves controlling each radiator.

On the electrical side, after carrying out a data logging exercise on our electrical usage, we have identified small power items being left on as a significant part of our electrical energy use. This includes computer screens, mobile phone chargers and small transformers. To eradicate this we have installed electrical cut out devices that can sense when the equipment has been left on standby or with no load for a period of time, and will automatically switch it off. In this way nothing is left on overnight. Similarly we have installed a central cut off switch for all our lighting, thus when the last person leaves the office at night, one switch will shut off all our lights, leaving nothing left needlessly running.

As a final part of our current upgrade we have also invested in replacing all our old refrigerant gas in our AC systems.

We will be monitoring the effects of our efforts and using the valuable information gained to help our clients with practical upgrading of their premises.