Case study
A community hall used as a day care centre, and for social community activities in evenings and weekends.
A resource efficiency audit was carried out and identified a number of savings:
Water
The main water usage was in the kitchen, toilets and heating. It was calculated that no/low cost solutions could make an annual saving of up to £300. These included leaflets, using water bowels for the sink, replacing twisting taps with pressing taps and installing a timer over urinals.
Energy
There was a high usage of gas for heating and electricity. The audit identified a number of simple changes that could result in significant savings:
Main hall: When half of the lights were switched off, the light intensity did not change. Keeping these lights switched off reduced the annual cost by half, to £250.
Kitchen: The water boiler had been kept on for 24 hours a day. Reducing this to 9 hours reduced the energy cost by £281.13. Replacing the 20 year old fridge with a newer A+ or A rated refrigerator would save up to £185 per year.
Central heating: The central heating was kept on for 24 hours a day. Switching to a timer and turning the heating off between 8pm - 2am would result in an annual saving of £2557.80.