Energy Efficiency Tips for Restaurants and Food Service Businesses
Restaurant energy efficiency has become more important with today’s high energy prices. It takes a lot to run a successful business. The cost of opening and running a restaurant will vary tremendously. What is universal is that average operating costs for a restaurant are high.You are likely operating on tight margins. In many cases, expenses are going up much faster than income. The same is true for grocery and convenience stores.
Taking control of restaurant utility costs is one way to get the math working more in your favor. We will address ways to control energy consumption and also ways to cut costs.
Average restaurant energy consumption
Most restaurants are heavy energy users. Learning how to save electricity in a restaurant, therefore, can have an outsized effect on profitability. Restaurant energy use is five to seven times more per square foot than in other businesses. Compared to the typical home, restaurants use more than 30 times the amount of electricity.
Even energy-efficient restaurants find that they consume the most energy on refrigeration, lighting and cooling. Controlling your restaurant energy consumption can help you minimize your restaurant operating costs.
Increasing restaurant energy efficiency is only a start. You can also trim your bill by exploring options to lower the cost of energy. Your restaurant may benefit from locking in a fixed-rate for electricity to insulate it from spikes in energy prices.
The average restaurant can spend about $15,000 per year on utilities like electricity and gas.
Restaurants use five-to-seven times more energy than other commercial buildings.
Most restaurants use lighting for around 16 to 20 hours per day.
Quick facts on grocery store energy use
Grocery stores and supermarkets have an average annual energy cost of more than $4 per square foot.
Refrigeration and lighting are responsible for over 50 percent of total energy use in the average supermarket.
For grocery stores, $1 in energy savings can be equivalent to increasing sales by $59.
