Now more than ever, businesses are looking for creative ways to save money and raise profits. And in today’s economy, utility bills are among of the highest expenses the average business shoulders. Organizations use KWH meters to monitor energy use in order to share the cost with other entities or to find areas of energy waste.

Home Business Deductions

Taxpayers operating home businesses can deduct utilities from their annual taxes. The amount that can be deducted is proportional to the size of the office. A 200 square foot office in a 2,000 square foot home would allow 10% of annual utility bills to be deducted on the owner’s income tax. However there are many cases where the office uses a disproportionate amount of power.

A west facing home office might require a portable air conditioner to keep it comfortable during hot afternoons. Copiers, fax machines and other equipment means more electrical equipment is in the office than anywhere else in the house, raising electrical use. Home businesses such as laser engraving or carpentry may use equipment with very high energy demands.

A KWH meter allows the business owner to document the power used by the home office and deduct the actual amount used rather than a percentage of the total.

Passing Energy Costs to Tenants

Any time an office landlord is sharing energy costs among tenants, the problem of dividing up utility bills arises. The situation could be a homeowner renting out a spare room or a building with hundreds of commercial offices. In the past, individual KWH meters were expensive and difficult to install so owners used strategies such as adjusting rental fees to cover utilities or dividing up total energy costs by square footage.

The problem with these policies is they give no incentive to conserve. An energy-gobbling tenant pays the same as the one who struggles to reduce power consumption. Modern KWH meters are inexpensive and simple to use. Utility bills can be calculated for each tenant, allowing fair pricing and encouraging individual responsibility for energy use.

Conservation on an Industrial Scale

KWH meters aren’t meant just for computers and other small electronics. Large manufacturing operations use far more energy than standard office environments and find that conservation leads to significant cost reductions.

KWH meters allow a manufacturing facility to determine what operations are using the greatest amount of power. Attention can be directed at the most energy-hungry processes since small changes there will have the largest impact on energy consumption. Plants with multiple divisions can monitor each division separately, leaving it to managers to find ways to cut power consumption to lower levels.

As changes are made, the meters demonstrate whether they are having an effect or not. When employees and managers see tangible proof of their efforts, they are motivated to conserve more. Departments can be rewarded for conservation efforts, saving money and improving morale.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on a KWH meter, visit http://www.hoytmeter.com/.

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