Antrobus has a combined total of 160 years of commercial accountancy experience and takes a pro-active approach towards moving clients’ businesses forward with a comprehensive range of accountancy services that includes advice on business growth and development and assisting clients with business strategies.

Case Study:

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Left to right: Denis Sprague, Auditel Consultant and Mike Kirby, Managing Director, Antrobus Accountants

Mike Kirby, Managing Director of Antrobus Accountants, was already aware of Auditel before being approached by Denis Sprague at a Chamber of Commerce meeting in Petersfield in 2010.

Impressed by Auditel’s no-win, no-fee business costs health check, he felt Antrobus had nothing to lose by engaging Auditel.

“Although I felt that our costs were pretty well under control, I’m time poor as it is and didn’t really want to spend my time working out whether we were getting the best deal on utilities or stationery for example, when I could be working on expanding the business instead!”

Initially Mike engaged Denis to investigate Antrobus’ telecoms and photocopying costs. He had already done some homework on these himself, but was keen to see whether Auditel could improve on the quotes he had received.

“Denis took those quotes and treated them as the benchmark, determined to improve on them. And he has.”

On the fixed line telecoms, Denis managed to deliver a significant saving of 21% and, although at the time of writing the savings on the newly installed photocopiers haven’t yet been completed, he found a further 12% on stationery and IT consumables.

In addition to this, by negotiating new contracts for both electricity and gas he has achieved annual savings of 32% and 25% respectively, as well as a gas rebate of £1,073 he identified following a meter change, which had resulted in Antrobus being charged for gas that they hadn’t used! There then followed impressive savings of 32% on waste and recycling and a massive 67% on washroom services.

Mike Kirby comments, “We are, of course, delighted with the savings Auditel have made for us. We are also especially impressed with the way Denis follows up. In contrast to some cost management companies, Auditel doesn’t simply make cuts and walk away. Denis has followed up, checking every invoice with meticulous attention to detail, making sure that suppliers are delivering as promised. If I have any queries, I just pass them on to him in the knowledge that any anomalies will be sorted out quickly and efficiently.”

Further investigations are ongoing for Merchant Cards and Direct Debit, PABX and Water and Sewerage costs.

Savings Achieved:

Fixed Line Telecoms – 21% Saving
Stationery & IT Consumables – 12% Saving
Washroom Services – 67% Saving
Waste & Recycling – 32% Saving
Electricity – 32% Saving
Gas – 25% Saving
Plus Rebate of £1,073

Current Projects:
Merchant Cards & Direct Debit
PABX Support
Water & Sewerage
Photocopiers

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“Verisona has used Auditel for gas, electricity and DX services. We have received an efficient and prompt service and been happy with the savings gained. I would recommend Denis Sprague and Auditel as being quick to understand and then manage cost savings effectively”.

Richard Solly, Chief Executive.

The cash payouts are based on the amount of energy generated, regardless of whether it is used, and for the excess energy sold back to the national grid.  In addition savings are made due to reduced electricity bills.

So is this an attractive scheme for householders, and are there better ways of spending one’s green pounds?

The new feed-in tariffs are available for Anaerobic Digestion, Hydro, Micro-CHP, Solar PV, and Wind.  For the majority of us the most practical source of green energy will be Solar PV panels mounted on our roofs.  According to David MacKay (sustainable energy without the hot air) the average space available for Solar PV is 10M². 

From a brief search of the web I found a website that was quoting an 8 panel 10.7 M² system fully installed for £9,500.  This will produce 1233 KWh of energy per annum.  Assuming all the energy generated is used by the household this would generate £445 PA from the generation tariff, and a further £171 saving on electricity.  This would equate to a 7% annual return.  Over the 25 year life time of the system this would generate an income of total income of £15,400, with a pay-back period of 15 years.

So what about spending the money instead on energy saving measures?  Lots of households have GU10 spotlights fitted, typically using 50 watt bulbs.  Many people haven’t replaced these with low energy bulbs (compact fluorescents or LED bulbs) because GU10 fittings until recently have not been widely available and are still pretty expensive.

Let’s take an example of a house with 24 x GU10 50W bulbs fitted in the commonly used areas of the house which are turned on for 4 hours a day.  We could replace these with 14Watt Compact Fluorescents (I have chosen 14W to ensure they are as bright as possible) for a price of £292.  This would save 1,261 KWh of energy PA.  The annual savings would be £175 PA.  Over the 10 year life time of the bulb it would generate a total income of £1,749 with a payback period of 1 year and 8 months.

So, the conclusion?  Make sure you have swapped all your trendy spots for low energy bulbs before you go spending money on Solar PVs.  You will be saving the planet the same amount of energy as if you had installed Solar PVs, and saved thousands of pounds as well.

On a more serious note, the feed-in tariffs will encourage investment in larger scale green energy schemes.  An example of such a scheme is giant anaerobic digestion plant being built on a West Sussex farm by Barfoots Energy.  The AD plant will breakdown 20,000 tonnes of green waste from processing sweetcorn to generate 1.1MW for 8,000 hours a year for an investment of £3.5M.  Details can be found in the following link (www.parissmith.co.uk/publications/barfoots-article1.pdf).

I estimate the payback period for the AD plant will be in the region of 3-4 years which is significantly better than for a domestic Solar PV system.  For those with sufficient spare funds to invest in domestic green energy generation schemes then perhaps the better solution for both the planet and their pockets would be to invest, if such funds exist, in commercial renewable energy generation.