Businesses could face £30m costs over bank holiday

British firms could face costs of £30m over the bank holiday because of wasting energy unnecessarily in their offices.

Leaving electrical equipment on standby and cooling vacant offices over the weekend break could cost the business community £10m each day and lead to 54,000 tonnes of CO2 entering the atmosphere.

Price comparison service, Make it Cheaper, has calculated that the average office consumes energy at the rate of 10 kilowatt hours per employee per day when cooled, and all equipment running in standby mode. With over 10 million office workers in the UK, and business electricity costing around 10 pence per unit, that’s up to £10m per day being spent unnecessarily.

Jonathan Elliott, managing director at Make it Cheaper, said: “Many businesses use the bank holiday as the perfect excuse to shut down and take a well earned break without thinking of the money that could easily be saved when no one’s about.

“There are simple energy saving measures that can be put in place to help cut costs and increase profits. Making sure the heating or air conditioning units are not timed to come on, switching off all lights and checking that computer equipment and accessories are switched off at the mains will all help conserve energy and save money.”

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