The United States in one of the world’s largest countries, so of course that comes with a wide variety of climates.

In the south, one couldn’t imagine living without air conditioning, but in the midwest home buyers view it as less important than a garage (where you keep your car from freezing).

In some parts of the country, one might rarely use central heat, but for businesses in New England or the midwest, heating might be the most expensive utility, by far.

Since freezing isn’t really an option, here are some ideas for saving money on utilities, while staying warm, all winter.

Get to Know Your Options

The first utility bill after a cold spell often serves as a wakeup call to businesses, and only then do they start taking measures to conserve resources.

You don’t have to wait for sticker shock to get started…you can understand what will occur and prepare, making for a much more pleasant first chilly-weather utility bill experience.

Consider appointing an energy lead or team to get to know your heating needs, and take active measures for improvement. Your energy leader could:

• Take a look at past usage
• Examine areas of biggest use
• Determine possibilities for conserving energy
• Promote smart energy usage within the workplace

Throughout the year, the conservation team might encourage such activities as turning off computer monitors at the end of the day. In the fall and early winter, though, such a team might focus recommendations on setting thermostats lower at night, limiting the use of space heaters, or other conservation efforts.

Enlist Support

The more your team is engaged in the process of conserving energy, the more buy in you might get.

Examples are limitless, but here are a couple:

• A church, looking to save on heating expenses, coordinates the use of various spaces and only heats during prearranged occupancy. Lockboxes might even be installed over thermostats, to prevent the extreme, knee-jerk temperature changes that come from last minute occupancy.
• An office agrees to a game of saving energy. Everyone where sweaters and other warmer clothing, rather than raising the temperature a couple of degrees and running space heaters. To get everyone on board with the game, they came up with a prize: reduce the utility expenses a certain percent and they get a catered lunch that Friday.

How straightforward or creative your conservation efforts go is entirely up to your workplace team and culture, but whatever measures you take you will reduce your energy bill.

Explore Your Options

For a more dramatic cut in heating costs, beyond what wearing sweaters can achieve, consider an energy soft audit.

An energy audit can determine both where your facilities waste the most energy and where you can focus efforts to make the biggest impact.

Thanks to incentives and purchasing options available, it may be possible to make energy upgrades and dramatically slash energy expenses now and for the future. Examples include:

• Structural upgrades, such as windows or spray foam insulation
• Utility upgrades, such as heaters, water heaters or appliances
• Energy generation upgrades, such as the installation of onsite solar panels

While some parts of the country experience shorter, cloudy days throughout the winter, some of the coldest climates have their sunniest days in the winter–such geographic locations are perfect for solar energy solutions.

Energy Professionals

Since the possibilities for saving money while staying warm this summer are limitless, it can be difficult to know where to begin.

That’s where Energy Professionals comes in. As independent energy brokers, we can help you secure the best resources at the best rates for all of your energy needs–from reducing energy needs, to negotiating contract terms, to energy upgrades.

Contact us to find out how you can save money on heating expenses this winter.