Rank: Super forum user 
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Hi all
Does anyone have a plan to reduce the use of fuel of fleet and/or also to reduce energy consumption in offices they are willing to share?
I have been asked to produce a document of this ilk and am looking for some inspiration. I have recently attended a course on this but when it comes to the documenting of such strategy I have found the course totally useless.
Thanks in advance to any contributors.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Obviously there is the "switch it off" campaign that we have all been party to at some point or another but which is rolled out with varying degrees of success or otherwise, however, depending on the size of your offices I purchased a piece of voltage optimisation equipment a couple of years ago which has paid for itself already.
The product is called "Voltis" and there is a link to it below. It is wired into your main electricity box between supply and demand and it reads the demand and adjusts the voltage required accordingly. So, your equipment is all pretty much 240V with transformers or whatever to adjust at point of usage. The voltage will generally come into the building at anywhere between 242V and 253V in general. However, as you can take your equipment on to the continent where the max voltage is 220V and it works fine, clearly 240V is too much for requirements. This equipment will reduce the amount of volts that it gives to each piece of equipment and deliver as much or as little as necessary. We found when testing that we received 253V but we only used 227V (3 phase factory) most of the time so we were wasting 26V or 10% every second, minute, hour, day, etc that the equipment was turned on and this was wearing equipment quicker as well and costing more.
From the looks of the website they are now doing this in all sizes to suit all environments so I hope you find something that fits.
http://www.marshalltufflexenergy.com/voltis/
btw - I'm not on commission, I do actually have this product and I am very pleased with it. :)
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Hello jarsmith83, I am not a professional in the trade, but I can give you some suggestions (as energy is a hobby for me). There is a website called 'YouGen' that has video's if your interested and there are numerous linked-in forums on renewable energy too.
Suggest to your company to reduce their carbon footprint by doing some or all of the following.
Fit Solar PV panels on the roofs (you may have more than one roof), where feasible fit tracking PV panels, depending on your land holdings - you may be able to erect 1 or more small to medium wind turbines. If you have any streams or water ways flowing down a hill on any of your sites - you could try installing a Micro Hydro scheme (water turbine). You could fit an air to water heat pump to heat the offices (these machines work like a radiator in reverse and are powered, works out at 1 watt or electricity in and 4 watts of heat out), you could also try boring a hole and fitting a water to water heat pump (this is a hole bored into the ground and pumps water through radiators). Does your company use forklift trucks - if it does, get them converted to run on hydrogen - contact ITM Power in Sheffield (who supply Walmart and M&S). If you have fleet cars and transit type vans you could either run them on Hydrogen (Using ITM Power again) or use battery versions (zero emission vehicles) these can be powered from the sun using PV panels over car ports. Any heavy vehicles you have could be converted to run on LPG rather than diesel (another benefit is that the conversion to LPG offers the conversion to using hydrogen gas in the near future as a planned implementation at all fuel retail sites is due in the next 2 years). Hope that helps.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Rank: Super forum user
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Rank: Forum user
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Simply get in touch with the Carbon Trust and get them to carry out their FREE Carbon Survey.
Following the survey, you will be provided with a report detailing areas where savings can be made, quantifying both the financial and environmental savings and any investment required to implement.
The format of their report will allow you to prioritise the recommended actions and produce your own action plan.
I had one of these carried out a couple of years ago when I joined my current organisation and found the report a good starting point.
Having exhausted the proposals in the report we have now moved on again, targeting further areas for improvement.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Do not forget meter readings and similar to prove the savings made!!!!
Bob
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Rank: Super forum user
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Thanks everyone!
This has given me some great ideas. Anyone got a template for such a plan. I now have a desktop of lots and lots of notes, just need to formulate a plan.
Will definitely contact the Carbon Trust jfw, that is a great idea!
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