Beat the crunch: energy saving tips

BigHospitality returns with the penultimate installment of tips from Restaurant magazine`s Thrifty 50 - money-saving tips from industry experts.

The climate may be tough, but implementing these Energy Saving tips from industry experts could help your restaurant weather the storm and help the world become a greener place.

1. Get a heat recovery system for your warewasher. Heat recovery devices can reduce energy consumption by around 30 per cent. They work by recycling exhaust heat from the steam and hot waste waster generated by a warewasher and return it to heat the incoming cold water.†Winterhalter, which produces the Energy device, says that heat recovery can save you as much as £1,095 a year on a single machine.
2. Join Hospitable Climates to obtain information on energy saving techniques and free tailored advice based on consumption data from your own premises. Visit www. hospitableclimates.co.uk .
3. Elect an ‘Energy Champion’ – someone who turns off lights, stoves, ovens etc not in†use between service.
4. Switch to low energy light bulbs. Lighting accounts for 20 per cent of energy costs and energy saving lightbulbs use 75 per cent less energy than regular bulbs. You do the maths.
5. Invest in an E-Cube for your refrigerator. This small wax cube ensures cycles are less frequent and last longer, while food temperature remains constant, meaning that it could cut your energy bills by up to 30 per cent. Greene King installed one last year and reckons that the device is saving it some £3.5m a year in reduced energy costs across its business.
6. Keep radiators free of dust and vacuum them every couple of months. If the heat exchange is dirty, they will use more energy than normal.
7. Fit a water treatment system to kitchen and bar equipment to prevent the build of limescale, which can inhibit efficiency.
8. Switch to induction cooking. Induction ovens dispense with the need to have gas burners on all day and are 93 per cent efficient. Their use could halve your energy bill.
9. Put your bathroom and stockroom lights on time switch or motion sensors to cut
   your lighting bill and control your outside signs with a timer.
10. Buy an Owl meter. This will give you a constant reading of how much electricity you are using, identifying exactly where your energy usage goes. Close monitoring of your energy use could cut energy costs by a quarter, according to the manufacturer.
11. Label all your plug sockets. Most chefs hit all the switches the minute they enter the kitchen in the morning irrespective of whether the kit needs to be on or not. Labelling the plugs and encouraging your chef to look at these labels could mean that you don’t pay to run equipment unnecessarily.
12. Turn down the thermostat in your dining room. Not so much so that your diners suffer from hypothermia, of course, but an unnoticeable 1°C reduction could shave 7 per cent off your energy bill, says the Carbon Trust.

For the final installment where we`ll be giving tips on the subject of Menus , return to the site on Friday.

Contributors: Sara Stewart, partner at Jeffreys Henry , Chris Galvin, Ashley de Safrin, client services manager for tourism and hospitality at Business Link in London, Ken Hogg of Davis Coffer Lyons , Peter Backman, managing director at Horizons , Richard Corrigan, Daren Bale, head chef, The Elms Hotel , Worcestershire, Rob Lucy, restaurant negotiator at Christie & Co , Mitch Tonks, David Gibson, chief executive Gibson Business Infrastructures , Martin Austin, director at Tenon Recovery , Iqbal Wahhab, Roast founder, Ben Hood, managing director Fourth Hospitality .