Are you a business owner and want to save money on your energy bills?

Do you want your shopfront to look vibrant and work for your business after hours?

The  NSW Government Office of Environment & Heritage offers an Energy Efficiency for Small Business Program to businesses that use up to approximately $20,000 in electricity per year or have up to about 10 employees. The Program is open to small businesses across NSW.

The Program offers:

• A subsidised personalised energy assessment and action plan
• 50% of the costs of energy efficiency improvements worth up to $5,000
• Up to four hours free support to coordinate the installation, of equipment.

This Program is focused on the needs of small businesses and has been very successful, with 17,000 NSW small businesses taking part. These businesses are identifying savings of an average of $1,600 on bills and 11 tonnes of carbon pollution a year.

Much of these savings come from lighting, which accounts on average for 27 per cent of a small businesses' electricity use. In fact, 70 per cent of all energy efficiency recommendations made under the program are about lighting.

Energy efficiency saves money, and is an important part of growing and maintaining a sustainable business.

This program will show you:

• Ways to save money on energy bills
• How to make your business visible and attract new customers at night
• How to brighten up the street, and improve customer perceptions of safety in the area
• What Government grants, rebates and other programs are available to save you money on energy-efficiency and improved business lighting

Four Renew Newcastle Shopfronts had  recently a personalised energy assessment and action plan done which demonstrates the available technology, energy savings and costs of energy efficient shopfront lighting.

For example, in the "It's about Time" shop in the Hunter Street Mall, Halogen Down-lights and Fluorescent tubes were replaced with LED alternatives, costing $1555 to purchase and install, with estimated savings of $1022 per annum. The payback for these lights is around 18 months.

In the "Melt "Store, Halogen Down-lights were replaced with LED's costing $794 to purchase and install, with estimated savings of $483 per annum, giving the retrofit a payback period of around 20 months.  

If you would like to participate in the program please contact Aaron Bristow in the Newcastle office on  (02) 4908 6846   Energy Efficiency for Small Business Program  

Comments

[Sara P]

I would tend to participate but I've got a question. Do they offer any renewable energy plan like solar panels? Since we are a new start up and have a limited amount of budget.