The OAK Leaf - August 2022

This month at OAK

August was truly a rollercoaster for every one of us. A lot has happened and people slowly but surely feeling the consequences of what happens when the energy market goes haywire. If estimates are correct and things continue this way, it will be a very tough year ahead.

Nonetheless, let's leave those predictions for another time because the OAK Leaf newsletter has a different purpose. To inspire, educate and inform you about the changes within our network, aka The OAK Network, and there were quite a few good things that happened this month! ??

Case Study: Fridges and Freezers (up to 20% savings potential)

Problem

Fridges, as well as freezers, are usually kept on 24/7. The worst thing about this is that not many models, even the newest ones, allow the flexibility to change that. At night, when the internal fridge temperature is more stable, cooling power can and should be reduced accordingly. This helps to save electricity and it can potentially extend your appliance lifetime. To solve this problem, one of our newest customers installed the OAK system.

Solution

Soon afterwards, by analysing usage patterns of individual appliances, the OAK team discovered around 20% of monthly savings potential on fridges and freezers alone. Now consider the aforementioned price increase and the value of these savings shoots through the roof! While this is one of the quickest and easiest ROIs we provide, it's only a tiny piece of what OAK can offer.

Remember: 5Kwh = 1kg Co2 = ￡3.5

The example above demonstrates the current situation for the majority of businesses. Appliances run inefficiently, they make a huge impact on your business' bills, but this continues to go unnoticed due to a lack of management, oversight and control. What about you, do you manage your consumption? If not, reach us at [email protected]

Energy Efficiency represents 40% of your Net Zero target of 2040

New team member

Just a few months ago Nicholas Stewart joined our team as Sales Associate. With enormous passion and dedication, he proved to be a valuable OAK team member and now is focusing on leading the sales effort in Scotland.

Our approach to a successful sustainable energy strategy

Like any transition, energy transition takes time especially if you want it to be successful and benefit your business in the long run. The good thing is, that you don't need to do it alone as OAK is here to help lead you towards your net zero goal.

Net Zero goal and Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is absolutely crucial for achieving the net zero emissions target our society needs. This is because electricity demand is set to increase significantly over the coming years, and without reducing our energy intensity (the amount of energy we need to deliver goods and services), this growth in demand will outpace the speed at which we can build new wind farms and other sources of clean power.

Energy Efficiency represents 40% of your Net Zero target of 2040

Think about it this way. If you have a building that’s wasting a lot of power through outdated lighting that’s always being left on, an ancient HVAC system on its last breath, or inefficient electrical equipment that isn’t working like it should, then dropping a huge solar panel array on the roof is not necessarily a sound investment. Yes, you’ll be turning sunlight into your own clean electricity, but if most of that power is going to be wasted anyway, you might as well be reflecting it back into space.

That’s why energy efficiency should always come first. It puts the groundwork in place so that when you do finally get those solar panels you’ve been dreaming about, you know every drop of that green energy will be used well.

OAK is designed to help you with that groundwork by identifying clever ways for you to minimise your energy consumption and plan for a green, net-zero future.