11. The SEEDA project ‘Energy Grant 500’ offers Small to Medium Sized Businesses, that spend between £1,500 and £30,000 per annum on Energy (Electricity + Gas + Oil), the opportunity to apply for up to £500 grant funding for energy efficiency projects. The main focus is on heating & ventilation systems, lighting, office equipment and building fabric. Energy Grant 500
12. Hendesigns assessed & provided a full lighting survey of our site and a proposal of improvements. The report provided to us showed all areas of improvement: And laid out clearly how much energy could be saved, and the payback period after which cost savings would be seen: Energy Grant 500
13. There was one area that stood out as having, by far the most potential energy (and therefore cost) savings. This trial area would cost £1144.80 to convert, and lead to an energy saving of over 3000 kWh per year, and a cost saving of nearly £300 per year. Energy Grant 500
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15. After submitting our application we received notification that the grant had been approved just a few weeks later. Within a week the initial work was completed. Hendesigns provided us with an invoice for the work immediately, a copy of which we forwarded to Business Link. The grant was paid to us directly and the money was with us before our supplier invoice was due for payment meaning that there was no effect to our cashflow. Energy Grant 500
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Notas del editor
ISO assessment date 8 th March 2011
Attending an SBP event we met Gill & Bob from Hen Designs who introduced us to the Energy Grant 500. (details above) We had already done a full review of the business and had identified that energy use was one of our most significant aspects so we were very interested to find out more about the grants available.
Rather that tearing out all of our exiting lighting and replacing it with new energy efficient lighting they proposed that we fit ‘converters’ that allowed us to use the existing ballasts – this was not only more cost effective but also lead to far less waste
The total cost for the whole of the proposal was over £8k – even with the grant this was not something that our budget would stretch to at the time. There was one area which stood out as having by far the most potential energy (and therefore) cost savings. Therefore we chose to use this area as a trial and decided to apply for the energy grant to assist with the cost.
Gill at Hen Design applied for the grant on our behalf and helped us complete the paperwork – which was very simple and straight forwards. Not long after the application we received a starter pack. (details of contents above). Even though we had already decided on the area we would like to use the grant for, the information, survey and monitor was still very useful helping us to assess other areas.
Hen designs arranged an appointment out of hours to come in and take some light readings – this showed that de-population of some of the bulbs would be possible, whilst maintaining sufficient lighting for the area. At the time of the initial proposal, there was nothing available for converting the warehouse lighting that would have provided sufficient savings – a new converter has come onto the market since and Hen Design have submitted a new proposal.