Energy prices are at historic highs, and the impact is being felt by individuals and businesses. For warehouse operators who often deal with long hours, or even a constant need for temperature control, this is a relevant and worrying issue. The knock-on effect of these price rises could make businesses less competitive at an already difficult time.
If your warehouse is looking to reduce its energy expenditure, new technologies and monitor adjustments can make a big difference. While some will involve short term expenditure, they will pay the business back in the long run – both in terms of energy savings and reducing your carbon footprint.
Smart lighting
Lighting is one of the most significant factors in warehouse energy usage. Having to light the entire warehouse whenever it’s in use – and do so at a brightness that promotes safety – can lead to substantial energy bills. A more modern approach is to use smart lighting. In conjunction with a warehouse management system, smart lighting can control your warehouse lighting in a way that guarantees safety while optimising energy usage.
Smart lighting uses sensors around the warehouse to manage lighting for you. Much in the way that a simple sensor light works in a room, smart lighting coordinates warehouse lights based on where people are in the warehouse. Lights that don’t need to be on to provide sufficient illumination in a given area are turned off, meaning that only the areas which need to be lit are. Though the complexity and accuracy of this control may vary depending on your setup, this can drastically reduce your energy expenditure.
Energy efficient bulbs
Many warehouses still rely on fluorescent lights, the qualities of which should be obvious. While they provide substantial and reliable illumination, they consume a large amount of energy, and are less efficient in almost every way than LED lights. The colour temperature of fluorescent lights and brightness can both increase fatigue, while as directional lights, they can also create issues with shadows and dark spots.
The primary benefit of LED lighting is without question its energy efficiency, requiring ten times fewer watts in some cases than an equivalently sized fluorescent fixture. But the other benefits are equally enticing: higher brightness, omnidirectional light, lower colour temperatures, and a significantly longer lifespan. If you haven’t already switched to LED lighting, now is definitely the time.
Smart charging
Electric industrial vehicles are increasingly popular in and around warehouses. Electric forklifts produce zero emissions, ideal for reducing indoor air pollution, while other electric vehicles are increasingly viable for outdoor use. While this reduces your reliance on fuel – and susceptibility to unreliable fuel prices – it increases your reliance on electricity and charging infrastructure.
While you might not think that there are many savings to be had here, you would be mistaken. Charging can be made more efficient through new technologies, as well as through effective monitoring. Smart charging can analyse your battery charging process and battery usage, and assess opportunities for improvements, such as where batteries are failing or are being overcharged. This can allow you to head off problems before they develop, and maintain peak energy efficiency in your vehicle fleet.
Newer industrial vehicles
As electric vehicles become more popular, vehicle and battery technologies continue to develop. The latest generation of electric warehouse vehicles are more powerful, more durable and more adaptable to different use cases. Crucially for us, they are also more energy efficient – making them run longer for less than previous models, and more competitive with petrol and diesel engines.
Modern electric vehicles can be more energy efficient thanks to improvements in electric motors, better servos and other optimisations. Newer Li-ion batteries also offer higher capacities and faster charging, meaning less time spent out of operation. By upgrading – or leasing – you’ll also be replacing older vehicles that have experienced wear and degradation, particularly to the efficiency and storage capacity of batteries.
Better racking design
While not the most obvious change, designing racking with energy efficiency in mind can contribute to long-term energy savings. For example, you may be wasting energy and time by travelling further than necessary to store or retrieve common items. To address this, you might adjust your racking layout to place these common pallets lower down, and closer to loading areas. Racking design can also help to heat or cool your warehouse more efficiently by allowing for better air flow and HVAC operation.
Racking can also be organised and zoned in a way that guides traffic, and produces better traffic flows through the warehouse. This could involve the creation of new aisles or the changing of aisle widths, as well as the use of signage and protocols to reduce traffic jams. This in turn should reduce the time vehicles spend moving and idling, and cut down on the potential for accidents and collisions due to dense traffic, and a need to make up lost time.
Multi-tiers and mezzanines
Many warehouses are built tall with no conception of how to use the entire space. The result is racking with a substantial amount of unused headroom. This wasted space costs more to heat or cool, and often remains unoccupied even as businesses look to expand their storage. The solution to this problem is simply to use that space, either with multi-tier racking or a mezzanine floor solution.
Multi-tier racking and mezzanines can add either additional storage space in unused headroom, or floor space for a myriad of other applications. All of the empty headroom in a warehouse is being heated or cooled with no direct benefit to the business, leading to unnecessary expenditure. Occupying it creates new efficiencies and positions you well for future expansion, at a time when new warehouse space has never been more expensive.
Energy prices affect everyone in a multitude of ways, and there’s no easy or single solution. However, by making a range of alterations to your warehouse design, vehicles and systems of work, you can help to gradually reduce costs and create other efficiencies, helping you to ride out price rises and focus on running your business.
Author bio: This post was written by James Beale, Operations Manager at Invicta Racking. With more than 30 years of experience designing, installing and inspecting high density pallet racking systems, Invicta Racking has built a legacy of trust with some of the world’s most prestigious companies.
