Saving Energy

It’s tough out there. Whether it’s food prices, mortgage or rent costs, the fuel you put in your car or how much it costs to heat and power your home – everyone is feeling the pinch.

What is ‘Everyone is Reducing Carbon’?

That’s why we here at Everyone Active are launching our ‘Everyone is Reducing Carbon’ Campaign. Over the next four months – from November 2022 until February 2023, we’ll be sharing what we’re doing to reduce the significant running costs and environmental impact that one of our leisure centres has, and how you can help. Each month will have a different focus – November will be saving energy; December, saving water; January will focus on recycling, while February will concentrate on promoting green transport to and from our centres.

Alongside highlighting what we’ll be doing as company, we’ll be demonstrating what you can do to help us out and how this can all translate towards helping reduce your running costs and carbon emissions at home.

Saving Energy

Throughout each month, we will be sharing with you exactly what we’re doing to help save energy, reduce water consumption, recycle more waste and to improve our green travel credentials. We’ll also be asking you to help us out along the way – pointing out where we can improve and if there’s anything we’re not doing.

This month, therefore, we’re asking you to help us save some energy in our centres. The average leisure centre consumes an enormous amount of electricity – enough to power 277 homes and this is something we’re looking to change.

What are we doing?

In order to help reduce our carbon emissions in November, we’ll be saving energy through a variety of measures – some big, some small. They all, however, add up to a significant contribution.

• Turning TVs and Screens off

In order to help achieve this, across the next four months and moving forward as a whole, we will be implementing a number of initiatives. These can be small things – turning TVs off, rather than leaving them on stand-by.

• Switching off Lights

One of the major ways in which we can help save energy is by switching off unnecessary lights. For example, by making sure all the lights are switched off overnight, we can save enough energy to heat a home for five months! Meanwhile, switching off lights in the empty rooms in your house can reduce your energy bills by up to 15%.

• Increasing the usage of Swimming Pool Covers

Swimming pools are some of our biggest energy drains. Therefore, by increasing our use of swimming pool covers, we’ll save an enormous amount of energy. Simply by covering each pool every night, we’ll save enough energy to heat our pools for four months!

• Keeping the Air-Conditioning Thermostats at a constant temperature

Alongside this, we will also be keeping our air-conditioning thermostats at a constant temperature to help reduce power usage (and, subsequently, our carbon footprint). Unfortunately, putting the thermostat on the lowest possible temperature won’t cool the room any quicker and uses a significant amount of energy. For every one degree our gyms are over-cooled, our energy bill goes up by 8%!

• Switching off Some Gym equipment at off-peak times

To help save electricity, we’ll start switching off some gym equipment at off-peak times. If, however, the gym has started to get a little busier and you’d like to use a particular piece of equipment, just speak to one of our colleagues and they’ll be happy to switch it on for you. We’ll also be turning our gym equipment off overnight to save energy.

• Keeping Doors and Windows Closed Where necessary

Unnecessarily open doors and windows make our buildings incredibly inefficient to both cool and heat. They let any cold or warm air out, so we will be trying to keep doors and windows shut wherever possible, so save the energy we have spent cooling or warming the building and maintaining the efficiency of our sites.

What can you do?

Essentially, we need your vigilance. If you spot a light on that doesn’t need to be on, or a screen that you don’t think needs to be on, then please just let one of our colleagues know and they will investigate further. The same goes for any windows or doors left open that you may notice. There may be a very good reason for them being open, but please let us know anyway so we can check!