Energy-Saving Advice Helps Farmers Reduce Costs?
The farming industry like many others has suffered over the past few years from increases in energy costs, and like many others have taken a long hard look at reducing them. After all it is in everyone in the UK's interest to make sure that they do so, as it will cut tithe sot of dairy products needs, with dairy, meat and fowl production costs being directly affected. The things that are part of the staple diet of most of us every day.
Not only fuel costs need to be reduced by this vital service to the UK public but also the amount of carbon that they emit into the atmosphere, especially in the rural areas where they centered. To this end, the government bodies who deal with a particular branch of the agricultural industry have issued a series of guidelines that will help them to make their energy use process more efficient as well as friendlier to the environment.
A spokesman for the dairy farmers sector for example said that they were making considerable inroads in their energy-saving measures which will go a long way to cut farmers’ costs that could be passed on to the consumer. Particularly problematic and cost intensive were heating and lighting with ventilation also coming under scrutiny. They went on to add that the cost of power made up no less than 25% of the farmer's average overheads. “Under these circumstances, anything we can do to save on fuel, gas and electricity use – per unit of output – is likely to make a particularly valuable contribution to improving profitability; especially so with escalating energy prices.” They summed up.
In recent years the farming industry has been faced with the task of transferring their energy sources from oil to gas, as burning oil for energy has become economically unfeasible. The one of costs of installing gas boilers has been more than justified by the cuts in energy costs that it has brought, and will continue to bring in the future.
As far as electricity costs are concerned, replacing the traditional lighting used in dairy farms and chicken coops with low-energy bulbs, and especially for the powerful floodlights used outside, have been shown to have an immediate effect on reducing the cost of lighting. As is in the case with domestic properties, the farming industry has come to realise the importance of proper insulation and draught-proofing farm minimise heat losses, as well as improving the natural airflow in barns and chicken coops to reduce the need for power driven insulkation.
To sum up, a spokesman for the farming energy advised “Regular monitoring of energy invoices over the year is recommended to maintain a good picture of performance, although producers are advised to take their own meter readings rather than just relying on utility bills as these can be based on irregular or estimated meter readings.”
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