Commercial power bills are the bane of my existence right now. It’s not even having to pay them – that’s a given, really. It’s the fact that they fluctuate so crazily from month to month. Try as I might, I’m finding it near impossible to predict to figure in advance, which is weird since it’s relatively easy to guesstimate when it comes to my home’s energy use. I realise that this is part of the learning curve of running a warehouse; I just hadn’t bargained for it being such a steep one.
It’s this leasing model that’s making it difficult, I think. Basically, we rent this massive space and use a portion of it for the floristry consulting business, while the rest of it is subleased to other small businesses. The idea is that we split the power bills based on each tenant’s percentage of total space used and time logged, but in practice it’s not working out. Someone’s power usage must be sporadically disproportionate.
We might need to look into installing some kind of commercial energy monitoring system – you know, to track in real time how energy is used across the whole space. I feel like that’s half the battle: seeing that information broken down graphically. There must be a company that has that kind of software, and knows how to hook it up in an industrial setting.
It would possibly help us get somewhere, too, with the ongoing question of whether to install commercial solar. Brisbane is seeing more and more of that, and I can’t help but think we’d be idiots not to get amongst it. I’m just not sure how it works when you don’t own the space in question. There’d have to be a way of doing it in a way that’s spearheaded by the tenant, but I’m guessing it would have to involve the owner getting on board. I mean, it’s fairly permanent infrastructure; it’s not like you can just pull it off and take it with you when you move on.
Gah. I just want to work with flowers. Then again, crafting the perfect bouquet is a puzzle, and so is this.