How to Reduce The Energy Use of Your Nonprofit

Doing good and running a charity or non-profit organization is a great incentive, but there are still costs that accumulate for your operations. Finding the right energy deals can help you put your funds to good use and avoid having them cypher from your pocket to pay bills.

Additionally, implementing energy-efficient practices such as using LED lighting, turning off electronics when not in use, and properly insulating your building can also significantly reduce your energy consumption and costs in the long run.

Making small changes in your non-profit business activities could go a long way at the end of the month. We have set out a few ideas to help you keep your nonprofit as charitable as possible. Charity energy deals abound, and you need to know what to look out for to find the one best suited to you.

Insulation

The best way to save money on your heating and cooling bills is by reducing heat loss and heat gain. Insulation is the key to doing this.

Insulation can be added to the roof, walls, and floors of a building to reduce heat loss through conduction, convection, radiation, or evaporation.

In a well-insulated building, warm air does not escape as easily, so you don’t need to use as much energy for heating purposes.

Even though insulation doesn’t help with cooling costs directly, it does make your air conditioner more efficient by keeping it from having to work too hard during hot weather periods when there is high humidity in the air (like after rain storms). This means that you may not even have any need for an AC at all!

Talk to the building manager about the insulation. If you can’t do it yourself, ask if they can help. If they won’t help, ask them to pay for it. You are doing good for the world, and when you reach out to expand your support, people might surprise you.

If your building manager won’t pay for insulation and still refuses to let you install your own, try asking them to pay for the electricity that you save by insulating (and thus lowering your heating bill).

Also read: How to Save Energy at Home and Reduce Electricity Bills

Switch off lights and other appliances 

• Turn off lights, refrigerators, and other appliances when not in use.
• Use a power strip to turn off electronics when not in use.
• Turn off your computer when it is not in use.
• Turn off your printer when not in use.

Install LED light bulbs

You’ll save money by doing this, and you’ll also be creating a better environment for your staff. 

LEDs last longer than other types of bulbs and use less energy, so the cost savings are huge in the long run. 

Light up the lives of those you help along with lighting up your non-profit office space with LEDs!

Install weatherstripping around all of your windows

Weatherstripping is a cheap and easy way to make your office more energy efficient. It’s made of a strip of rubber that you put around the window to reduce drafts. This can be done on sliding and hinged windows, so it’s versatile and cheap. 

It’s also very simple to install: just cut the weatherstripping at an angle so that it sticks out from the edge of the window, then press it into place along both sides of each frame.

If you want to seal off as much air leakage as possible when installing weather stripping, choose foam instead of felt or vinyl strips.

The foam will expand over time and provide better results in terms of reducing air infiltration through cracks around casings or between panes (but note that foam is more expensive than other kinds).

Shop around for a greener utility provider

An energy bill is unavoidable, but you could reduce yours and have one free from carbon pollution by switching to a green utility provider. 

Green power providers use renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, meaning they don’t emit greenhouse gases like other forms of electricity production. 

Ask friends, family, and neighbours if they have used one before. You could also ask the utility provider what they are doing to reduce their carbon footprint and how much of their power comes from clean sources like solar or wind energy.

Read also: 10 Things You Need to Know About Purchasing Natural Gas

Upgrade your appliances

When you’re upgrading your appliances, there are a couple of things to keep in mind:

• Check the energy rating label on each appliance. The higher the number, the more efficient it is. For example, a rating of 5 means that an appliance uses 20% less energy than the average model.
• Look for appliances with a high energy rating and replace old ones that have low ratings with new ones with higher ratings.
• Switch out refrigerators for new models; many older refrigerators use about 150 kWh per year—enough to power two 60-watt light bulbs for almost four days!

Conclusion

If you don’t find any incentives for using renewable energy sources with your current provider, consider switching anyway!

Many utilities will offer lower rates for people who opt for green plans; it’s just up to them whether or not they will tell you this upfront when signing up (or even after).

A nonprofit cannot afford to waste money on energy costs, and switching can help you save.