Cutting energy bills

Over the last month we have been consulting and installing for a client in Bristol, Contract and Construction Consultants who are  leading specialists of contract dispute resolution with many decades of experience.  The company have an office in a 3-storey Victorian semi, typical of the Clifton area of the city, and are soon to open another office in London. 





CCC's office in Clifton



Although it is a striking and classic building in many ways, it brings with it a number of energy conundrums -  after reviewing the layout and composition of the building, comparing that to the building services installed and their state of repair, then weighing those up against the energy bills over a 12 month period - Norman Environmental were able to put forward a number of energy saving proposals:

1. To reduce heat loss and stress on the heating system and improve comfort by;

• Insulating the front facing void beneath the ground floor, and,
• Draft proofing the timber windows and doors

    2.   Improve gas efficiency with;

• A replacement, highly efficient, Viessman gas boiler,
• A new external weather compensation unit, and,
• Thermostatic radiator valves installed to each of the building's radiators.

    3.   Reduce solar gain via;

• The installation of window film to the South facing windows and and roof lights.

    4.   Reduce electricity consumption by;

• Replacing a number of the high energy light fittings and lamps with low energy alternatives, and,
• Installing a V-Phase unit to optimise voltage.

CCC agreed that the measures we proposed would make a significant positive difference to the comfort levels of their staff and reduce the company's energy costs, and instructed us to proceed. To minimise disruption for the staff at CCC we have worked on the premises over the bank holiday weekends in April and May and will carry out the final stage of works during the Whitsun bank holiday weekend.

We estimate that the result of our installations will be an annual saving of 30% on CCC's electricity bills and 40% on their gas bills.  Norman Environmental will continue to monitor the situation at CCC over the 12 months subsequent to the completion of our installations, to measure the effectiveness of our changes.  With energy bills set to rise significantly in the near future, these savings will be further exaggerated - allowing CCC to benefit from a annually rising return on the investment they have made in their property.  We'll be sure to report our findings in this blog, when we expect to see a reduction in the company's annual carbon output of over 4 tonnes.

If you think that your home or business premises could benefit from an energy survey, then get in touch via email, visit our website, or comment below.

Measure and reduce your carbon footprint

As anyone who paid attention in science lessons at school will tell you, energy cannot be destroyed, only changed into another form, and an inefficient energy conversion always results in waste.  Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary waste product of man's insatiable hunger for energy as we try to convert it into heat, light and electrical current - so much so that even our individual annual CO2 outputs are measured in tonnes.

Back through Earth's history high concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have coincided with climate change. Compared to historical data, during man's existence on this planet anyway, today's CO2 levels are high and as can be seen below, are on an upward trend.

Weather patterns in recent years have been erratic, and other geological events such as earthquakes and volcano eruptions seem to be more common place than ever.  Whether man's endless emission of CO2 is responsible for these events or whether it is the natural cycle of things is perhaps debatable - what cannot be argued however is that man's CO2 output is not helping matters, at best we are exasperating the situation, at worst we are the sole purveyors of this planet's impending doom.  The likelihood is that the truth, as is so often the case, lies somewhere in the middle.

My belated point is that we as a species have a duty to reduce our impact on the world, and thereby lighten our carbon footprint.  With that in mind Norman Environmental are proud to announce our association with Carbon Footprint, a leading carbon management company. 

We have already begun to dovetail our own services with that of Carbon Footprint, using their calculator to assess the carbon impact of each of our clients and showing the differences made once our proposed changes are implemented. We can then offer carbon offset programmes, such as tree plantations in the UK and abroad, to bring private clients, SME's and corporates to a carbon neutral position.

As Dr Wendy Buckley, co-founder of Carbon Footprint says in a video on their website;
"Stakeholders are increasingly looking for their businesses, not be seen, but to actually have green actions in place"

There is more to reducing business's environmental impact than just pleasing stakeholders as John Buckley, MD of Carbon Footprint explains;
"For every £1 our clients spend with us on Carbon Management they typically save £10 and win £100 of new business."
That sounds like a good deal to us, save money, reduce your impact on this delicate world and increase your business.

We are so taken with Carbon Footprint that we have decided to host their free domestic carbon calculator on our own website to help our website visitors, wherever they may be in the world, to measure and understand their own carbon footprint so that they may consider the big and small changes they can make to reduce it.