Recent research seen by Greenlite UK indicates that UK businesses are spending up to half of their electricity bills powering offices after their staff have left work for the day. With energy prices souring and the pressure on businesses to reduce costs to protect profit margins, this research has been greeted with astonishment by senior staff at Greenlite UK.

According to the research carried out by one of the UK’s major energy companies, data from thousands of smart meter readings revealed 46 percent of business electricity use happened outside the traditional working day of 8am to 6pm including lighting empty car parks, shopping centres keeping display lights on and vending machines left on overnight and at weekends. According to the energy company that carried out the research, business could save more than £1,000 a year by addressing this issue. However, this only tells part of the story. The research findings will be diluted by the inclusion of businesses of all sizes, including those with generally low energy bills. For larger businesses and those with higher energy bills, the wasted costs will be far higher making a real dent in company profits.

Greenlite UK works closely with many of the UK’s largest companies, organisations and more specifically large retail groups on reducing the lighting energy costs through the implementation of low energy lighting systems and case studies show that the amounted of electricity wasted on retail lighting can be astonishing.

One typical client of Greenlite’s is one of the UK’s largest discount retailers who have over 400 stores nationwide. Greenlite recently carried out an energy reduction programme for the company, focusing on high quality, low maintenance and low energy retail lighting. Greenlite worked with 6 stores and achieved savings of £68,000 per year, an average of over £11,000 per store. Greenlite analysed data from Smart Meters installed at the stores prior to making energy reduction recommendations and installing low energy lighting solutions.

Bob Hall, Greenlite’s MD said: “It still amazes us at Greenlite that companies still haven’t got to grips with the energy consumption for their business. Rising energy prices have been in the news now for a number of years and we all know the importance of reducing energy consumption, both from an economic point of view and an environmental one. When this research comes out every year, we expect to see that companies have finally addresses the problems but year after year the research is the same. We are making huge savings for our clients by implementing the latest low energy lighting solutions so we know that this wastage can easily be avoided.”