Free Energy Audits
Energy audits
Independent energy audits for your business
An energy audit gives you a clear picture of how your business uses energy and where savings can be made.
What’s included?
- A site visit by an energy consultant.
- A tailored report with practical recommendations.
- Advice on potential carbon and cost savings.
- Guidance on grant applications to support improvements.
Audits are fully funded (free) and tailored to your organisation’s size and needs – from light-touch advice to in-depth assessments.
Enquire now View case studiesTargeted advice and support
We can provide energy advice on a particular technology (such as solar, lighting or low carbon heating systems) and focus on taking a particular opportunity in your business from an initial idea through to completion.
This could involve developing and/or reviewing energy saving proposals as well as providing targeted technical advice to meet your needs. We can carry out desktop analysis, & feasibility studies so you know that you are making the right investment choice for your business. We can also provide this support to help you make a grant application.
Energy audits & decarbonisation plans
We can also provide more in depth energy audits and decarbonisation plans to help develop a comprehensive suite of energy saving recommendations to help you with short medium and long term energy saving goals and ambitions. Reduce your carbon footprint
Before we start the audit it is helpful to review your energy use, and if you have your energy bills available that will really help. We will visit your premises on an agreed date and review your heating and lighting systems, as well as look at the building fabric and review any opportunities to install renewable energy systems such as Solar PV. We can also develop proposals for low carbon heating systems such as air source or ground source heat pumps. We can also review machinery and equipment to help identify energy saving opportunities.
Energy monitoring
In some cases it’s helpful to carry out a detailed study of energy use, and we can install temporary monitoring equipment to record the energy use of particular plant or machinery. This can help identify any unusual energy use patterns across the working week. The data can also be used to quantify the energy use (and cost!) of running particular machinery. This information can then be used to build a business case for making changes to the operating hours of the equipment or to demonstrate the need to invest in more efficient models.
Energy audit reports
Once we have visited site and carried out the audit, we will prepare a detailed report with an executive summary highlighting the key recommendations, their estimated cost and their forecasted energy/cost savings. The report also contains further technical advice and information for your consideration and we can also support you with a grant to help fund energy saving opportunities. Here is an example of the recommendations and their benefits that a report may include:
Frequently Asked Questions
Where a full energy audit is required, the auditor will be able to prepare a report that outlines the most important ways that you can reduce your energy bills through making a variety of changes, ranging from low cost through to high cost.
Each energy saving opportunity will be detailed, with an estimate of how much it will cost, and the annual cost savings that it would achieve for your business, summarised in a table and executive summary so you can quickly refer to the key opportunities.
The auditor will discuss the report with you and cover any of your questions on the recommendations and how to implement them.
The auditor will visit your site at an agreed time to carry out the audit with the minimum interruption to you. The more pre-audit information provided helps the auditor prepare the site visit effectively, so they can focus on the key priorities for your business or organisation.
In some cases, we may be able to offer advice and recommendations over the telephone or via email. This is most likely for smaller energy consumers with simple energy requirements. Where appropriate you will be offered a site visit by our Energy Team to carry out an audit on your business premises. This will depend on the size and complexity of your energy consumption, ranging from light touch recommendations, to more in depth analysis and audit reporting.
Where a visit is required, the auditor will visit your site at an agreed time to carry out the audit with the minimum interruption to your business. The more pre-audit information provided helps the auditor prepare the site visit effectively, so they can focus on the key priorities for your business or organisation.
Improving your business bottom line through good energy management has the same impact as increasing sales of your products. Many customers are becoming more environmentally aware, and your energy audit can be a way of highlighting to customers your commitment to environment and sustainability. Public sector and contracting bodies are increasingly asking businesses and organisations to demonstrate how they are minimising their environmental impact through greener technology and business practices.
Go to https://www.best-ne.co.uk/apply-now/ to complete the brief enquiry form.
We need to carry out a few checks to ensure your company is eligible for funded support. Our team of staff work quickly and effectively to get the information we need with as little intrusion into your working day as possible. After that, we can get into the important detail of really understanding your businesses or organisation’s energy needs and priorities.
In order to get a good understanding of your energy needs, we will ask for some information to help us provide tailored advice and guidance. This may include copies of energy bills and any site drawings or plans you have of your office/premises. We can advise without most of this information, but if we have this information, we can deliver a better, more accurate service for you to help reduce your energy bills and give you a high quality service.
Alternatively, if you don’t have copies of your energy bills, we can apply some industry standard energy use assumptions, and use the government’s published energy price statistics to estimate the energy cost savings for your business or organisation.
Once your energy use has been reviewed and recommendations for improvements identified, (this could be from a previous BEST audit, other professional energy audit review or BEST Energy Adviser), we may be able to support you with a grant. This would be towards the purchase and installing of energy efficient new lighting, or a boiler, or a more efficient piece of equipment to improve your operations. Grants are approved through an application process with a few simple steps.
Our advice and guidance can be general across your site, or it can be focussed on any key priorities for your business or organisation.
For example, are there any pieces of equipment/machinery/production lines that you would like us to focus on? Do you have any plans to improve the lighting in the building? Are you looking to install renewable energy such as solar?
We want to help you reduce your energy costs and carbon emissions and will work with you to explore what the options are for your needs.
We have an experienced and skilled team of energy auditors available through our energy team at BEST. For larger and more complex energy consuming businesses, our external energy specialists will be brought in to carry out an in-depth review tailored to the organisation’s needs. All energy auditors within the project are highly skilled and experienced in delivering energy audits across a wide range of businesses and industries.
No, but here is a link to some useful independent, impartial advice from Ofgem https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/consumers/business-gas-and-electricity-guide
Please get in touch with David Orr at Newcastle City Council. Tel 0191 278 3448, email best@newcastle.gov.uk
