Pub Energy-Efficiency Audit

"With energy bills nearly 15 per cent of my operating costs, I knew that it was a major area for urgent action," he explained. "I had investigated alternative utility suppliers, but The Ivy House is over 250 years old, and Grade II listed, and I had no real idea how to significantly reduce my usage. By joining Hospitable Climates, I was able to tap into a huge knowledge base, allowing me to make real improvements both to my costs and, in a small way, to reducing greenhouse gases."

The Ivy House recently underwent an "energy site audit", which was videoed and it was this video that was viewed by launch guests. The purpose of the audit was to identify the energy saving potential, through improvement to the energy efficiency of the existing facilities. A number of areas were considered and these included: electricity, refrigeration, electrical heating, kitchen fans, boiler plant, heating development and flame effect gas fires.

Ed Horgan of Briar Associates, who carried out the audit under the auspices of the Action Energy programme, said: "On the basis of implementing the measures recommended in the report, we estimated that a saving of £2,100 (US$3.945) per annum could be made in excess of 30 percent of the current energy costs, through the investment of approximately £2,600 (US$4,885). Clearly this represented a worthwhile investment and would also provide significant benefit in terms of improved comfort and reduced maintenance time for lighting bulb changes."

There are also expansion plans for The Ivy House -- with the provision of an extension to the Coach House restaurant, a new kitchen and five bedrooms. In association with the building development, it was recommended that the boiler plant and heating system were refurbished by a condensing gas fired boiler and zoned heating providing for the total building. The generation of hot water services should be provided by a dedicated gas fired hot water generator, and the preheating of mains cold water from cellar refrigeration heat recovery could be considered. It was estimated that the heating refurbishment would require capital costs in the order of £s;8,000 (US$15,030) but may reduce future heating energy consumption in the order of 30 percent.

"This has proven to be one of those rare cases in life - a win-win situation for us," said Mears. "We feel good about the improvements; we have a very short payback period on the 'quick fix' solutions, and we have a program for moving things even further forward when we develop The Ivy House!"

From: Hospitality Energy Assessment Tool Targeting Waste Series
Energy Measures, Case Study 1
Video of Pub Energy-Efficiency Audit