How to Conduct a Business Energy Audit?

30-Second Overview

A Business Energy Audit is a structured review of your electricity and gas usage to identify inefficiencies, eliminate waste, and cut operating costs. An audit is the fastest way to reduce energy waste before comparing commercial electricity or gas prices. Whether completed internally or by a professional energy consultant, an energy audit highlights:

• Where your business consumes the most energy
• What equipment or processes are driving up bills
• Low-cost changes that deliver immediate savings
• Long-term upgrades that reduce carbon emissions and improve competitiveness

What is a Business Energy Audit?

A Business Energy Audit is a detailed inspection of how and where your business uses energy. It looks at electricity and gas consumption across lighting, heating, cooling, equipment, and daily operations. The goal is to identify (i) energy hotspots with the highest usage, (ii) wasted energy such as heat loss or inefficient equipment, and (iii) cost-saving opportunities from behavioural change or equipment upgrades. A professional or internal energy audit can help your business:

• Understand energy consumption: Learn where energy is used, where energy is wasted, and what your business can do to be more efficient
• Save money: Identify the low-cost or no-cost changes you can make to achieve immediate savings.
• Reduce risk: Lower exposure to energy prices and carbon tax increases to improve your business competitiveness.
• Enhance your brand: Reduce your energy-related carbon emissions and promote your brand, and support sustainability credentials.

Types of Business Energy Audits

There are two main types of energy audit: (i) on-site professional audits carried out by a consultant, and (ii) internal audits carried out by the business owner or appointed staff member.

On-site professional energy audits

An on-site energy audit is when a professional auditor visits the business and prepares a plan on how you can save money. The auditor will analyse your day-to-day operations and see how much electricity or gas is consumed. The auditor will assess (i) HVAC systems, (ii) lighting efficiency, (iii) machinery, motors, and plant performance, (iv) insulation quality, (v) operating houses v's energy consumption and (vi) energy tariffs and billing structure. The final report will include actionable recommendations, cost projections, payback periods, and renewable opportunities.

How to Prepare for a Professional Energy Audit?

• Gather Utility Bills: Prepare at least 12 months of utility bills, building schematics, equipment specs, and occupancy schedules.
• Do a Pre-Audit Walk-Through: Conduct your own walkthrough to document inefficiencies (such as lighting, HVAC, insulation, for example) so the auditor can focus on high-impact areas.
• Engage Your Team: Encourage staff involvement. Energy awareness and small behavioural changes (switching off lights, devices) improve audit outcomes and promote a culture of efficiency.
• Allocate a Financial Budget: Be ready to invest. Some recommended changes may require upfront spending, though long-term savings and grant support (e.g., SEAI vouchers) often justify them.

Internal energy audits

An internal energy audit is ideal for SMEs without the budget for an external consultant. It is also a useful first step before an external consultant is engaged. A business owner or staff member conducts an energy audit themselves. This method may not be as detailed as an external audit, but it allows businesses to tackle each problem one at a time. Common things to look out for when conducting your own audit are:

1. Poor insulation 
2. Heating and cooling inefficiencies
3. Water or gas leaks
4. Outdated inefficient lighting
5. Inefficient equipment
6. Incorrect timers or clock settings on heating or AC

Once you note down any obvious problems, you can then decide which issues to deal with first. For example, switching to LED light bulbs will use considerably less energy and therefore will result in cheaper electricity bills. 

How to Conduct an Internal Energy Audit

If you decide that you would like to conduct an internal energy audit, below is a clear, actionable 3-step framework.

Step 1: Analyse Past & Current Energy Consumption

The first step is to fully understand your current energy usage (this is your baseline). Analysing where, when and how energy is currently being used can highlight areas that require corrective action.

• Review electricity and gas bills from the past 12 months
• Identify peak consumption periods
• Break down usage by department or building
• Create a list of all major energy users (lighting, heating, cooling, equipment)
• Add up how much energy is consumed, and the associated cost

Step 2: Conduct a Physical Walkthrough

When you have completed your analysis of the current energy usage, you should then physically walk around your business to check that everything is working efficiently. Examine energy usage by each business area that you listed earlier, room by room.

• Check equipment efficiency: Dirty filters, poor maintenance, or ageing machinery increase electricity consumption.
• Inspect insulation: Draughts, air gaps, poor window seals, and insufficient insulation waste heat.
• Review lighting: Switching to LED bulbs saves a lot of money and reduces bills. The only exception is the odd bulb that is rarely turned on.
• Assess heating and cooling systems: Check the time schedules on your heating and air conditioning systems to ensure your building is not being heated and cooled when no one is there.  Adjusting thermostats down by one degree in winter, or up by one degree in summer, can have a major impact on costs.
• Check the time of electricity usage: Consider shifting processes to off-peak or night-rate hours if possible. Make a list of the times that your business must use equipment, lights and heating and check if you can alter the timing to maximise off-peak usage. For example, it may be possible to heat water at night when electricity is cheaper, start energy-intensive processes a bit early before day rates kick in, or avoid peak time usage between 5 pm and 7 pm.

Step 3: Develop an Action Plan

After conducting an energy audit, create a simple list to ensure your business reduces energy consumption progressively and affordably. An ideal action plan can be structured as follows: 

• Quick wins: This includes simple tasks like switching off devices when not in use and adjusting timers.
• Medium-term fixes: These are lower-cost investments with fast payback periods, such as LED upgrades and insulation improvements.
• Longer-term investments: This includes higher cost investments such as heat pumps, solar PV and double-glazed or triple-glazed windows.
• Estimated costs: Work out the savings, timelines and payback periods on capital investments. This helps to create a list of priorities and ensure value for money.

How can Utilityfair help reduce business energy costs?

Once you are using energy efficiently, the quickest and easiest way to lower business energy bills is to ensure you're on the best commercial electricity and gas plan. That's where Utilityfair can help you. We are the largest and most reviewed commercial energy broker in Ireland. We work with all suppliers, and already have their latest rates loaded in our models. We can send you a full price comparison, tailored for your business in minutes - and it's completely free. Utilityfair makes switching to a better energy deal easy by:

• Comparing all energy suppliers to find the best available rates tailored to your usage.
• Once you have chosen your preferred option, we instruct suppliers to move you to better rates, saving you time and hassle.
• Monitoring your new contract end date to make sure that you never roll into expensive variable rates.
• In a nutshell, we simplify energy contract management, so you can focus on running your business.

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