How we are tackling the energy crisis

We are all painfully aware of the effects on our energy cost post the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.

This has affected the world gas market which in turn has made electricity very expensive to produce, we have all seen our own domestic bills rise by aprox 300% for gas & electricity.

The commercial market is even worse with electricity going up by 3  X and gas more than 10 X last years costs

Costs have thankfully been capped for next 6 months by the government, but even at these capped rates we have seen a significant rise in our gas & electric costs.

Our Proposals

Lighting

  • All common area lighting has been changed to the latest low-energy type, but we are going to add further PIR-type sensors to control their operation.
  • Within the tenant car park we will also be putting the two main 4-headed lamp posts onto PIR sensors as well, there will however still be background lighting provided by the existing flood lights which are sited on the building itself.
  • All external lighting and bulbs have been replaced with the latest low-energy bulbs.

Heating & Insulation

  • We are also installing sophisticated heating controls to help maintain the correct levels of heating especially for first thing in the mornings and following the weekends.  This should ensure that we only use gas as and when needed.
  • North wing Tenants will see additional heating grilles being fitted in the radiator casings to help increase the heat into the office area. In addition, there will be foil faced insulation added to the wall area under all windows and behind the radiators themselves.  This should help to prevent heat being lost through the brickwork and promote convected heat back into the office.
  • All kitchen and toilet areas will see new central boilers being fitted i.e., one to the south wing and one to the north wing. This will allow us to remove all the single heaters that operate separately in each kitchen and toilets. This will also allow us to control the heating of the hot water by thermostats and time clocks.
  • The Myson Electric fan heaters that at present heat the ground floor reception and landing areas, will be replaced with high-output conventional wet system radiators.

Solar Panels

We are also considering installing solar panels to the north and south wing roof areas.  This would be huge undertaking and at a large capital cost, but the early indications are that it would help safeguard energy cost in the future.

There are a few  bridges that need to be crossed before we can proceed with the solar project i.e., Planning Permission and if the roof is structurally capable of taking the weight of the panels, framework and ballast.

In addition we need to get approval from Electricity North West as there will be times at Weekends & Bank Holidays that the electricity will need to be fed back into the grid with the issue being if the local transformer is capable of taking this back feed.