4  Ways Churches can Save on Utilities

As a church, synagogue, or other place of worship, effective management of resources is vital. Every dollar that you save on your energy bill can go toward your more important, mission-driven programs.

To help you, we offer this guide: 4 key ways that places of worship can save on energy bills.

Get Smart with Energy Usage

Many chapels, churches and other religious facilities use their buildings only at certain key times each week.

One way to save money is to have your energy usage closely mirror your needs.

Occupancy sensors, digital thermostats, motion-activated lights, and other energy regulators can help you maximize energy “down time.”

Particularly in climates with major heating or cooling needs, much of a church utility bill goes toward temperature regulation. With digital regulation and a little planning, you can save money on your utility bill.

Invest in Energy Upgrades

Depending on the age of your facilities, it may have been built before many of today’s advances in energy efficiency.

What’s more, there are many programs that make energy upgrades more accessible to organizations than years past — incentive programs, energy surplus buy-back programs, “savings as a service” programs and many more.

Energy upgrades vary greatly, but examples include:

• Insulation upgrades – Walls, windows, roofs, and floors may leak significant energy if not up to today’s standards.
• Lighting upgrades – LED lighting, auto-dimming features, and other lighting upgrades can make a big impact on energy usage.
• Appliance upgrades – Most religious facilities contain at least a kitchenette, sometimes a heavy-use commercial kitchen. These and other appliances can drain resources, if not efficient in their energy consumption.
• Heating and cooling upgrades – Not only are HVAC systems more efficient than years past, technologies such as geothermal systems can use the ground temperature to help regulate indoor temperatures.
• Onsite energy generation – Natural gas generates and solar panels are some of the technologies which can be installed to generate electricity onsite, saving thousands on energy bills, preventing energy blackout/brownout conditions, or even taking a building completely off the grid (particularly when combined with on-site battery storage).

Since houses of worship, in many communities, also operate as emergency shelters, onsite energy generation can make it possible to serve a community even when other facilities lose power.

What’s more, energy upgrades empower a religious facility to take charge of utility bills.

Change How You Pay

Across the nation, the dynamic shifts in the energy business have made it possible for organizations of all types to save money on utility bills.

In many states, energy choice programs make it possible to pay less per kWh. Others offer buy back agreements of on-site energy generation (solar panels connected to the grid) or savings as a service program.

Savings as a service means that the energy provider will provide onsite equipment or energy upgrades at their own cost to help improve energy efficiency. They may get their own tax benefits for doing so, or they may own the equipment but install it onsite, or many other setups that reduce or eliminate the cost of installing energy efficiency upgrades.

Get an Energy Audit

With so many possibilities and unique facilities, the best place for a house of worship to start is with an energy audit.

An energy audit will examine your particular usage, needs, and goals, then help determine the most effective way to reduce your energy expenses.

Whether upgrading your facility, changing energy providers, or negotiating rates for an upgrade installation, at Energy Professionals we work all day to save you the most money on your energy expenses.

Even reducing your energy bill by 20-30% can save you thousands of dollars, over time.

Contact us to request a free energy soft audit today.