Business energy costs: How much does the average office cost to run?
Finder is the UK’s fastest-growing comparison site, has compiled some statistics on business energy consumption costs. How do you think UK businesses are consuming energy and how much do you think they spent in 2020?
Top tip – if you feel that you’ve overspent on energy, there are 2 places to look. Where are you using energy? – and How much are you spending per unit of energy used?
How much does the average office cost to run?
It might surprise you which appliances consume the most electricity and costs you the most to run in the office. Finder has created three hypothetical model offices and calculated the cost of running each office.
An office with 100 people (7,500 – 9,500 sq ft) in would cost a total of £34,854 per year, with air-con costing as much as £10,100 a year.
A 30-person office (2,250 – 2,850 sq ft) costs a total of £10,423 a year, while a 5-person office (375 – 475 sq ft) would set a business back around £3,103 on energy bills alone which is crazy!
The below graphic shows how much each appliance contributes to the total cost and are based on a standard variable business tariff (c. 18p pkWh).
Office size energy usage
Several factors dictate the cost of running an office. Businesses that work around the clock can make savings just by turning off computers and lighting over non work hours.
To get the best efficiency out of your existing equipment, making sure it is maintained effectively is key and when you’re looking at your builds upgrade plans, make sure you’re looking for a++ efficiency products, especially in those high cost areas such as AC, lighting and computers.
You can see the average energy usage for different businesses below.
Allowing staff to work from home can also greatly reduce these prices, which many companies are now doing since the pandemic as a lot of employers move to an work output based model for managing remote working. For some perspective, the average household uses 8.5-10kWh of electricity and 33-38kWh of gas per day.
Who Are Thermatic Energy Services?
We work with end-user clients to help them achieve their energy management targets. Our main focus is giving our customers visibility to their systems and data to allow them to make actionable decisions to reduce their energy consumption, improve their building operation and achieve their sustainability targets.
