Energy costs are going up, but there are ways for businesses to cut consumption.
In 2004 Yellowknife Liquor Shop owners Donna and Perry Smith decided to make use of something the North has in abundance – cold air – to cut down on their power costs. The Smiths installed a Freeaire refrigeration system to operate the store’s coolers where it keeps beer and coolers cold for thirsty customers. The system moves cold air from the outside without the use of compressors and it uses a fraction of the energy in doing so. The Freeaire system saves the Smiths between $600 and $700 a month in power costs about eight months of the year. “That’s an amazing amount of savings,” Donna Smith says. “We don’t want $2,000 a month bills.”
No one does. But with heating and power costs going nowhere but up, particularly in the high-cost North, some business owners might feel it’s just a fact of life. Not so; businesses large and small should be looking at ways they can be more efficient in how much heating fuel and power they use. If they make the effort, it could save them a lot of money.
The good news is business owners need not become energy experts or make multi-million dollar investments. Andrew Robinson, executive director of Arctic Energy Alliance, a non-profit organization that promotes energy awareness and provides various energy programs and services in the Northwest Territories, says significant savings can be made by picking off what he calls “low hanging fruit.”
Lighting is a big one. Robinson says many Northern buildings have too much lighting, which uses too much power and drives up your monthly power bill. Switching from large fluorescent light bulbs to longer lasting, more efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs is one way to bring the power bill down. So is replacing older office equipment like photocopiers, TVs and computer screens with newer stuff certified by the Energy Star program. Most people know the Energy Star program applies to home appliances like washers and dryers but Robinson says most office equipment falls under this program.
Some other ways to cut down on fuel and power bills to improve your bottom line include installing more insulation in your building, putting in triple pane windows or using wood pellet stoves to heat the building. Robinson says by making these changes and others, business owners can see 30-to-50 per cent savings in their heating and power costs.
There is help out there. Each territory has organizations that provide energy efficiency advice and programs and services for businesses. In the NWT it’s the Arctic Energy Alliance. In the Yukon it’s the Energy Solutions Centre and in Nunavut it’s the Nunavut Energy Centre. But buy-in among businesses is sometimes lacking. Colin McDowell, director for the Yukon Energy Solutions Centre, says the big store chains are one of the offenders. “They design their stores with very little regard to the conditions you find in the North,” McDowell says. “We try to work with them. In some cases we haven’t been successful. But some of them have been quite responsive to the need to customize their stores in the North.”
