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Energy bills are going up, agreed.  However, it’s also worth thinking about what might be done from your end, in considering the right ways to keep your home or office energy efficient. For instance, were you aware that for every 1ºC that your premises might be overheated, your heating costs actually rise more like 8%?  In an increasingly precarious financial landscape, it’s the businesses that address these finer points - that cut costs and make themselves robust enough to ride out the recession – that will emerge the other side in better shape for it. So, what sort of things can you be doing to work off that extra 1ºC of excessive energy flab?  Well, here are 10 pointers to get you started:

1. Conduct a thorough heating audit of your premises and start to consider where savings might be made.
2. Check your heating system.  An obvious place to start, perhaps, but some business owners find themselves scratching their heads in order to remember where it actually is, never mind the last time they checked the controls.  So blow away the cobwebs and have a look: is it set to the most efficient mode?
3. Maintain your heating system.  If it hasn’t been serviced for some time, there’s a good chance that, rather like your car, it would benefit from a tune up, in order to allow it to work more efficiently.
4. Only heat the areas you actually need to.  It seems sensible really, but perhaps your heating audit will reveal you are actually heating communal hallways and stairwells.
5. Only heat your premises for the hours they are in use.  Are you keeping an office warm overnight, for instance, when no one is there save for the office Yucca plant?  How about the weeks you are away on holiday?
6. Ventilation and air conditioning.  Are these working correctly, or in opposition?  Are you cooling the same areas you are attempting to keep warm?  Are windows left open, allowing heat to escape?
7. Draughts.  Ah yes, the enemy of the energy efficient.  Do what you can to stop heat escaping, for instance with insulation, or even the use of draught strips around doors.
8. Check your windows.  Would you be benefit from energy efficient, double glazing?
9. Monitor energy consumption.  Smart meters are now increasingly being used across the country, enabling you to effectively monitor energy usage in real time.
10. Generate your own energy!  If you have a  large roof area, consider installing solar panels.  As well as saving money in the long-term, this could also be a benefit in terms of your green credentials and many schemes exist to help with the costs of the installation.

Each of these are simple, straightforward ideas, but taken together they form a good basis for a more efficient, and altogether rosier, living and working environment!