Energy efficiency at a time like this

The good news about energy efficiency 

Horticulturalists stay in business because of their capability to adapt. Their ability to multitask across multiple disciplines like science, business and engineering all helps them get the best out of any situation.

One of these situations is the current dramatic changes in energy price.

Simple, straightforward energy efficiency is one technique that growers can employ to combat higher energy costs.

What is energy efficiency?

Energy efficiency simply means achieving the same objective with less energy.

Many people associate energy efficiency with turning off lights. This is not wrong but is oversimplistic, there are many ways to save energy and some even cost nothing (or very little). For example, changing human behaviour costs nothing. If something is not working (like a pump, motor or an air-conditioner), control it with a quality, low-cost timer or sensor to switch it off automatically. A longer article about energy efficiency is coming out soon to build on these themes.

 Energy management and understanding

Energy efficiency often fails because of a poor understanding of what actions to take or understanding their effects. Good energy management is a starting point to good energy efficiency and as growers you could follow the steps below to help you gain a better picture of your energy consumption.

• Understand your energy contracts and tariffs. Examine the terms of your current energy contracts, carefully consider future suppliers and tariff structures considering current events. 

• Understand your total energy bill. Your total energy bill includes gas, liquid fuels, electricity use (kWh and m³) and cost, preferably over the last 12 months. Once you know your total energy bill, you need to know where it goes. 

• Build a picture or ‘map’ of your energy use
  • The energy industry uses energy boundaries to better understand and measure energy flows.
  • As a manger or owner, you will already know some of these boundaries. For instance in systems such as boilers, lighting, refrigeration and irrigation. Also in nursery or section boundaries and finally the across total business, which should reconcile to the total energy bill.
  • The use of sub-meters can better measure energy across these boundaries. Starting with the main energy boundaries like an electrical distribution board and adding in more sub-meters over time.
  • Try to consolidate your energy data to one place - disjointed spreadsheets and invoices make it difficult to manage energy as a business portfolio.
  • Using pictures or graphical representation to better visualise your data will immediately highlight areas of concern. 

• Identify energy saving opportunities. Using these highlighted areas identify where the opportunities lie, patterns in time of day, out of hours consumption, weather effects etc will all show you where the energy saving opportunities lie. Don’t be afraid to ask for help - consider an energy audit from a third-party specialist. 

• Make an action list to prioritise your opportunities and investigate the solutions.

If you have any questions or energy related queries, please call the GrowSave team at NFU energy on 024 7669 6612.

Roger Stones - GrowSave, NFU Energy

The huge increase in gas prices many growers are currently faced with