Make it Cheaper – Have you assessed your power factor?

One aspect of saving money is being aware just where savings can be made. However when you’re busy running your own business it can be difficult to find the time to discover just where you can make these savings! This is where we at Make It Cheaper will help you and your business.

By simply sending us a copy of your energy bill we can assess your current rates, efficiency, network tariff and power factor. We can negotiate the best rate for your next contract and assess your efficiency all at the same time. We’ve partnered with AMTIL because, just like AMTIL, we want to help you save money on your energy bills so that the dollars saved can be put towards something more worthwhile for the business.

One way that we at Make It Cheaper can help reduce your businesses energy outgoings is by analysing the power factor of your business to ensure that your business is using energy in the most efficient way. By doing this and giving you guidance, our team of energy saving experts can really help you to reduce the dollars your business is spending on its energy bills.

That’s easy enough for us to say, but what exactly is the ‘power factor’ and what do we use it for? The power factor of your business is really your business’ efficiency marker when it comes to energy use. The power factor is energy measured in KW (real power), KVA (apparent power) and KVAr (reactive power). The apparent power (KVA) is the power that you pay for, and includes the reactive power (KVAr) which is energy that, while you are paying for it, may not actually be giving any benefit to your business. To calculate the power factor of your business, the real power (KW) is divided by the apparent power (KVA) to get a figure up to 1. A ‘perfect’ power factor would be 1 but 0.9 and above is what you want your business’s power factor to be.

The easiest way to understand the power factor is by using a pint of beer as an analogy – now I’ve got your attention! You order a large beer to quench your thirst. That glass of beer has froth on top that does nothing to actually quench your thirst, but you must still pay for it as it is a part of the glass – the froth is the KVAr (reactive power). The beer itself, that does the job of quenching your thirst, represents the kW (real power) and the total contents of the glass – both beer and froth – represent the kVA (apparent power). To gain the full cost-effective benefit from the glass, it must be full of beer with no froth.

Moving this back to your business, we calculate the power factor to ensure that ‘real energy’ is maximised and the reactive power is reduced. Power factor correction is the solution we use to minimise these inefficiencies.

To discover how Make It Cheaper can help your business, by conducting a bill comparison or analysing your energy efficiency, don’t hesitate to get in touch. All we need is to see a copy of your energy bill and we can do the rest – it really couldn’t be any simpler! Our service is completely free to you and we keep it as simple as possible. We look forward to helping as many AMTIL members as possible to save time and money when comparing their energy needs.

Call us now on 02 8880 5523 and speak to one of our experts. Alternatively email a copy of your bill to AMTIL@makeitcheaper.com.au.