Mark Daniels: Hypermiling my electricity bill
21 July, 2009
Don't tell my pubco, but I've found a way of saving money...
I've recently purchased a new car. I'm not saying this because I feel I have bragging rights, nor did I do it because I've got plenty of cash to spare - I did it because I needed to save money and, perversely, buying a new car has managed to help me achieve this.
It wasn't that hard to work out, to be honest: the old Jeep had all the fuel economy of a Panzer VIII Maus and all the drag co-efficiency of Vanessa Feltz wearing a Sumo Suit and therefore the new car uses half the fuel the old one did. I estimate it will have saved the cost of its purchase in about ten minutes time.
Truth be told, I held on to the Jeep for a number of reasons: I really liked it. It was immensely practical for my business. Our Government's idiotic stance on making older, more polluting vehicles cheaper to tax than newer, much cleaner ones played a hand in it. And no dealer would offer me more than £1.99 in trade-in for it.
Until last month, that was, when a dealer in an industry equally as beleaguered as ours decided he needed to turnover some stock and the deal was struck. My favourite game since then is one called hypermiling (Hypermiling from Wikipedia) - where you try to beat a miles-per-gallon target you set yourself on a journey. Before long, I will be driving to the cash & carry slower than a tractor in an effort to beat my previous score.
However, this got me thinking about another expensive fuel cost I have to endure: the electricity bill. Like fuel, which has topped £1.00 a litre once again (this time with nobody complaining about it), electricity is expensive, but obscure meters mean we never know how much our current is actually costing us until the bill turns up. And often that doesn't make much sense, either.
Recently, though, I've discovered Real Time Energy Monitors - devices that monitor your electricity usage and display it in an easy-to-understand format that makes you realise just how much the cellar cooling is really costing you.
There's a plethora of monitors on the market, with prices varying upwards of £30; I recently opted for one that cost me £49, including a cable that allowed it to connect to my computer. The information is electrifying.
Like all of these monitors, the Current Cost CC128 ENVI that I've purchased doesn't require an electrician to install it (although, in these health & safety conscious days, if you're unsure then you really should consult a professional) and can be up and running in five minutes. Simply attach the transmitter to your electricity meter by means of hanging an inductor loop around the mains out (not as technical as it sounds) and then plug the display in to a convenient wall socket where you'd like it to be.
Immediately, it will start showing you how much electricity you're using. Try switching the kettle on - and watch how much your leccy usage leaps up. And how long it stays up if you've put enough water in to supply tea to your village.
This particular device also allows you to input the price you pay per kilowatt hour for your electricity, and then shows how much it is physically costing you to have everything switched on. For example, my display is showing that - at the time of typing - I'm using 4.76 Kw of electricity. That is about as tangible to me as calculating how many barnacles are currently attached to the hull of the QE2, but the display will tell me that, for my rate, this is the equivalent of £370 a month of electricity. Or roughly £11 a day. And that's before the kitchen's been switched on, ready to provide burgers & chips to all the queuing punters.
Cleverly, however, it will also plug in to your computer and plot both live and historical graphs for your electricity usage, allowing you to pinpoint the times in the day and the days of the week when you use the most electricity. For me, Saturday is my most expensive day, while Sunday lunch time is my most expensive trading period.
It's already saved its own cost, too, much like the Renault will save its purchase price. By putting the display in a place where my staff can see it, they've become more aware of the business's electricity usage too. Of course, it's easy to pinpoint that the glasswasher doesn't need to be switched on right at the start of every lunch time, especially if that's not a busy trading period, but now the result is far more corporeal to everyone concerned.
If such thinking saves me just £1 a day on electricity, that's £365 a year. The device cost barely fifty quid... And now I'm looking at other areas of expense, like the cellar cooling. Or the bar TV being left on when there's nobody in there. Or the children's PlayStation - they don't need that for the summer holidays, do they?
The manufacturers pitch these devices as being able to save Percy Polar Bear and his family from a watery grave, but I prefer to use it to help me identify areas where I can save money. If Percy and his crew benefit, then that's just a positive side effect.
To have a look at them yourself, simply Google 'Real Time Energy Monitor', find one that fits your budget and seems to fit your needs, and give it a go. Like the fuel savings on my new car, the unimaginatively titled CC128 is helping me hypermile my electricity bill.
But sshhh, don't tell my brewery. I don't want them putting up my rent to compensate...
Readers' comments
Nena, that's a lot of money per day! You would save a lot of it by (a) fitting low energy bulbs wherever you can (b) fit thermostats to your cellar cooling and chillers and (c) NEGOTIATE with your electricity company for a lower rate OR change provider PDQ.
Nena - it's hard to say what you should be paying without knowing the size/type of pub you have but £1000/month is a pretty standard electricity bill. I managed to drop mine considerably with low-energy dimmable bulbs but then it went back up after installation of air-con and garden heaters!
Nena, that's a high bill, but how big is your establishment? Also - what rate of electricity do you pay and which provider are you with? If you haven't set up an 'arrangement' with them they will probably be charging you an extortionate variable rate per kilowatt hour. Your best bet is to shop around (or use one of the agencies that'll do it for you) and see what fixed-rate agreement you can get with them. That way you know exactly what you're paying and for how long - then it's just up to how frugal you are with your electricity usage!
Hi, this is a great article, anyone who wants to save money on electricity contact me on my email address; dolphinpub@ntlworld.com I have done an enourmous amount of work on utility savings and have won 3 commendations. my electricity and gas bills were massive too, unfortunately, the government has encouraged big utility bills by allowing supply companies to charge interest, this means that it is in their interest to get you in as much debt as possible! don't underestimate how much you can save by concentrateing on this area of your business, these grotty old pubco buildings are draughty and have a history of bancrupt tennants, ussually because of the utility bills or the business rates, i can help you reduce both!
Very informative article. Thank you. I only have one question to all off you pub owners: As a new pub owner I was stunned to see my electricity bill for 100 days almost £4000. That is £40 per day. And no steady income yet. Have any of you had such a high bills? Not that it will help me much but I just wanted to know that I am not the only one being ripped off. Many thanks
informative article, shame about the car, renault uhggg
As a customer I hate to say it but a pub should be a place where laughter and light go hand in hand - and here the landlords are all looking to save money by reducing the electricity bills for what - Brown only wants the pubs to shut their doors - now even meddling in how much we can drink whilst abroad. Someone has written that - there is some kind of Government scheme where you can recover most of the cost in making the change.... anyone know anything more and how to claim??? Claim - all Brown wants to do is to shut the pubs for good.
Mark - good point on the meter making it tangible to staff. Another way is to set an electricity bill target (say, £100 below the average) and tell staff that anything charged below that will go into their tip pot - win win! You can also stick a label on the power-hungry items saying how much they cost (EG. on a 2kW glass washer, something like: Switching this on 1 hour later saves £73/year!
Nik - I hope so, I'll be straight in with a claim! I think this is only on 'permanent' solutions though, such as loft insulation, etc?
Talking about cars, in these days of 'Hypermiling' we've forgotten another important way of reducing motoring costs - 'Bangernomics'. The cost-per-mile to run a vehicle involves a lot more than miles-per-gallon. Depreciation costs a new car owner an average of £23 per day - that's around half a tank of fuel every single day, which equates to an average 70p lost per mile driven! Some owners are hit by depreciation of £100 a day on luxury cars. Repairs & servicing can save a fortune because silly-cheap pattern parts for older models are always available, even second-hand, fitted DIY or by a tame local mechanic. You are saving loads on capital expenditure and/or expensive finance deals. Throw in cheaper insurance because a low-value oldie only needs to be insured TPFT. It makes Mark's beloved old Jeep sound quite an economical proposition.
The best energy saving devce available to licensees is the finger. Use it for operating the off switches. Add training to staff and you have the cheapest method known to man. Ken Nason
Mark, I've heard rumour that if you switch to energy saving devices (inc energy saving bulbs) there is some kind of Government scheme where you can recover most of the cost in making the change.... anyone know anything more and how to claim???
All good suggestions. Another simple one that I use is to tell the staff not to turn on the games machines and TV's until they open the doors for the punters. They used to turn them on as soon as they came in to open up, which takes about an hour. This hour every day adds up to 365 hours per year which is 15.2 full days! Simple and obvious exercise, but big savings. Another tip, if you can affor it is to stump up short term for new cellar cooling and boilers. If you get the reccomended most energy efficent models, you get 100% of the cost back against your tax bill the next year, and so they effectively cost you nothing in the long run, but save loads of energy. The same goes for other forms of energy reduction such as adding cavity wall insulation and loft insulation. 100% back against next years tax bul.
Steve W - absolutely right. I'm now 24 months in to my first set of energy-saving bulbs and I have to say I'm quite impressed. Mind you, you have to buy the expensive ones to make it worth while; the supermarket value ones don't seem to last much longer than a standard bulb. That said, though, this is the point of this meter. As Manuka correctly points out below, they are more a guide, but when a member of staff comes in - as one did last night - and switches the dishwasher on in the kitchen a full hour before it's going to be needed I can now point out to them just how much electricity it's using unnecessarily. When you can make these things more tangible it's easier to get those around you to understand that it's costing money that doesn't need to be spent. Like discovering last night that all the lights were on in the kitchen a full two hours after it had closed!
Mark - by far the best way to save electricity in a pub is with low-energy lighting. I stumped up just over £1K and purchased a load of dimmable, energy savers - a lot of cash but I estimate it will save me minimum £2K across their lifetime (approx 2 years at my opening hours) - a saving not to be sniffed at, especially when you consider that's only the lights! It doesn't include all of the power-hungry items we use so much of in a pub. It's also other simple things that can make a big difference, such as not turning on the glass washer at the start of the shift but wait until you have your first full tray (usually at least an hour into the shift if you open early)? Or making sure kitchen staff don't turn on any griddles, ovens, plate warmers, etc. until as late as possible (if it takes 10 minutes to get to temperature, why turn it on an hour before you open)?
Mark too right ,they will want 50% of it. actually I am tied, so they will want 80%.
We need more of these monitoring devices built right in to our products. Hypermiling is well established in hybrids now but car companies haven't utilized the concept to any great extent. How about adding 'road markers' to the GPS units.Big savings can be had by getting off the accelerator well ahead of a red light. But what about a light that is about to go red? Or a light that's red but it's just over that hill your climbing? Simple enough. Have those red light locations and timings accessed by your ... lets call it a 'smart GPS' So when it senses that you should back off the gas it lights a small led bar on your dash/steering wheel wherever. It could also be programmed with you're regular stops ( e.g. home/work ) and signal you ( or the cars computer ) to go direct to full electric mode. THat puts you into max. savings mode. Probably a couple other options to use that sort of 'smart GPS' technology.
These Current Cost meters may well be a great idea, BUT they should best be considered as only a consumption guide IMHO. Their use of an inductive clamp means they measure apparent (Volt Amps) power rather than the TRUE (Watts) power. This relates to an electrical term called Power Factor (PF), meaning any inductive load (motors, switched power supplies, CFLs , idling PCs etc) may be seen by the unit as a power hog even when on standby. The electrical energy is just "bouncing around"rather than being CONSUMED. A further issue is that the CC meters do not show standing/service/daily charges- these can be VERY significant for light users. & bias energy bills UPWARDS significantly!