Leicester businesses can cut energy costs and improve electrical efficiency by tackling four things: upgrading tired wiring, installing structured data cabling, fitting voltage optimisation where the mains supply runs high, and carrying out a proper electricity consumption audit. Together, these reduce waste, protect equipment, and lower energy bills. Below, we explain what each involves and where the real savings come from.
Energy costs are one of the biggest overheads any commercial property carries, and they’re rarely fixed. In our experience across Leicester and the wider Midlands, much of the waste comes from electrical systems designed for a different era of working. The good news is that most of it is fixable and the fixes usually pay for themselves.
Why Are Leicester Businesses Reviewing Their Electrical Systems?
Rising energy bills have pushed electrical efficiency up the priority list for owners and facilities managers alike. When margins are tight, the electrics quietly draining money in the background become a lot more visible.
There are a few reasons we’re being asked to look at this more often:
- Energy costs remain high, so any measure that helps reduce energy consumption has a clearer return on investment than it did a few years ago.
- Ways of working have changed. More devices, more IT, more equipment running for longer, often on wiring systems never designed for that load.
- Safety standards and expectations have risen. A safe, well-maintained system isn’t just a legal box to tick; it’s the foundation everything else sits on.
Our message to every client is simple: electrical safety and energy savings usually go hand in hand. An older, inefficient system is often the same system that’s becoming a safety concern. Fixing one often improves the other.
Reviewing your electrical systems isn’t just about compliance it’s one of the most practical ways to control long-term energy costs in a commercial property.
When Does Your Property Need Professional Wiring and Rewiring?
Wiring is the part of your building nobody thinks about until something goes wrong. But ageing wiring is one of the most common causes of both wasted energy and genuine risk, which is why Wiring & Rewiring is usually where we start.
What are the signs of ageing wiring?
Keep an eye out for these warning signs:
- Fuses that trip or breakers that keep going for no obvious reason
- Flickering or dimming lights when other equipment switches on
- Warm sockets, scorch marks, or a faint burning smell
- A fuse box with old-style rewireable fuses rather than modern circuit breakers
- Any wiring you know to be more than around 25–30 years old
Why do increased power demands matter?
Most commercial premises now run far more equipment than their original wiring was ever meant to handle. When a system is running near its limit, it works harder, runs hotter, and wastes energy as heat. That’s inefficiency and a safety concern rolled into one.
Modern electrical infrastructure is designed around how businesses actually use power today. A professional rewire gives you a system with the right capacity, proper circuit separation, and modern protective devices, which means safer operation, fewer faults, and less wasted energy over the long term.
If you’re not sure where your wiring stands, the honest first step is usually an inspection rather than a full rewire. Our electrical inspection and EICR services tell you exactly what condition your system is in before you commit to any electrical work. If a rewire is needed, our commercial rewires and wiring team can plan it around your operations to minimise downtime.
If your wiring is old, overloaded, or throwing up warning signs, addressing it improves both electrical safety and efficiency at once.
How Can Data Cabling and Structured Cabling Improve Business Operations?
Not every efficiency gain shows up on the electricity bill. Some of the biggest wins come from how reliably your business runs day to day, and that’s where data cabling and structured cabling come in.
Structured cabling is the organised network of cabling that carries your data, phones, and connected systems around the building. Instead of a tangle of cables added piecemeal over the years, it’s a single, planned system.
What does good structured cabling deliver?
Done properly by qualified electricians, structured data cabling gives you:
- Reliable internet connections: across the whole site, without the dropouts that come from patched-together setups
- Stable IT systems and communication networks: so phones, computers, and cloud tools all work off one dependable backbone
- Easier changes and expansion: adding a workstation or moving a department becomes straightforward rather than a rewiring job
- Cleaner fault-finding: because a structured system is documented and logical rather than guesswork
Why does this future-proof your premises?
Data demands only grow. A structured cabling system built to a high standard today can carry tomorrow’s technology, so you’re not paying to rip it out and start again in a few years. For any commercial property planning to grow, that’s a sensible long-term investment.
We handle data and network cabling as part of our wider commercial electrical installation work, so we plan the power and data sides of your building together, not in isolation.
Structured cabling won’t slash your energy bill on its own, but it makes your business more reliable, more flexible, and cheaper to adapt as you grow.
What Is Voltage Optimisation and How Can It Lower Electricity Bills?
This is one of the least understood ways to improve energy efficiency, so it’s worth explaining plainly. Voltage Optimisation is about matching the voltage coming into your building to what your equipment actually needs.
Why is your supply voltage higher than you think?
UK mains electricity has a nominal voltage of 230V, but it’s legally allowed to sit anywhere between 216V and 253V under the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations. In practice, many businesses receive a supply closer to 240V, because the network has historically been run “high” to counteract voltage drop during heavy demand.
Here’s the catch: many electrical devices draw more power when running at higher voltages, and prolonged operation at the top of that range can cause overheating, reduced lifespan, and higher energy bills. In other words, you may be paying for voltage your equipment can’t use effectively and that’s quietly wearing it out.
How does voltage optimisation work?
A voltage optimisation unit is installed on your incoming supply and brings the voltage down to a steadier, lower level that’s closer to what modern equipment is designed to run on. By regulating and stabilising voltage to match the needs of your electrical loads, it can reduce energy consumption and protect equipment from premature wear.
A few honest points, because we don’t like overselling:
- Savings vary. How much you save depends on how high your incoming supply actually runs and what equipment you have. It’s most worthwhile where the supply sits well above 230V and where you have a lot of always-on load.
- It’s not right for every site. Some equipment is unaffected by voltage, so the benefit is smaller. A proper assessment tells you whether it stacks up for you.
- Treat any headline percentage with caution. Figures quoted online are supplier estimates, not guarantees. The only reliable number is the one that comes from measuring your own supply.
That’s exactly why we’d never recommend voltage optimisation blind. We’d measure your incoming voltage first, then tell you honestly whether it’s worth the return on investment for your property.
If your incoming supply runs high, voltage optimisation can lower energy bills and protect equipment, but only an on-site assessment can tell you whether the savings justify the cost.
Why Should Businesses Carry Out an Electricity Consumption Audit?
Before spending money on any upgrade, it pays to understand where your energy is actually going. An Electricity Consumption Audit is how you find that out. Conducting an energy audit means measuring and reviewing how, when, and where your commercial property uses electricity. Rather than guessing, you get a clear picture based on real data.
What does an energy audit reveal?
A good audit typically uncovers:
- Energy-wasting equipment left running out of hours, inefficient lighting, or systems drawing power when nobody’s using them
- Usage patterns when your demand peaks, which can affect both your bills and your tariff
- Ageing or oversized equipment that costs more to run than it should
- Practical opportunities for cost savings, ranked by cost and payback
Is an energy audit a legal requirement?
For most small and mid-sized businesses, no. The government’s Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) is mandatory only for large undertakings broadly, companies with 250 or more employees, or a turnover above £44 million and a balance sheet total above £38 million. We’re currently in ESOS Phase 4, which began on 6 December 2023, with a qualification date of 31 December 2026 and a compliance deadline of 5 December 2027.
If that describes your organisation, it’s worth checking your obligations. But even if you’re well under those thresholds and have no legal duty at all, a voluntary audit is still one of the smartest first moves you can make because you can’t fix waste you haven’t measured. Where useful, we pair this with electrical testing and regular electrical maintenance so we review efficiency and safety together.
An electricity consumption audit turns guesswork into a plan. It shows you where you’re losing money and which fixes will give the best return before you spend a penny on upgrades.
How Can an Electrical Upgrade Future-Proof Your Leicester Business?
Individually, each of these measures helps. Together, they add up to a commercial property that’s safer, cheaper to run, and ready for whatever your business needs next.
A joined-up electrical upgrade typically brings together:
- Modern wiring with the right capacity and up-to-date safety standards
- Structured data cabling that keeps your IT and communications reliable and expandable
- Voltage optimisation, where an assessment shows it will pay back
- Energy management informed by a consumption audit, so every decision is based on real usage data
- Efficient lighting, such as LED lighting and, where suitable, solar and battery storage to reduce long-term energy costs further
The value of doing this properly is that the pieces support each other. An efficient system is usually safer, and a safe system is usually more reliable, which means less downtime and lower running costs across the board. That’s genuine future-proofing, not a quick fix.
You don’t have to do everything at once, either. A sensible order: inspect, audit, then upgrade the highest-impact items first spreads the cost while still delivering savings early. That’s the approach we take with businesses across Leicester as their commercial electrician, whether you’re a small unit or a facilities manager looking after a larger site.
What This Means for Your Leicester Business
- Ageing wiring wastes energy and raises safety concerns; inspect it before deciding on a rewire.
- Structured data cabling improves reliability and makes future changes cheaper and easier.
- Voltage optimisation can lower bills where your supply runs high, but only an on-site assessment confirms the return on investment.
- An electricity consumption audit shows exactly where you’re wasting energy, so you fix the right things first.
- Bringing these together future-proofs your premises, making them safer, more efficient, and ready to grow.
- Most SMEs aren’t legally required to audit their energy use, but the businesses that do almost always find savings worth having.
Ready to Cut Your Energy Costs? Speak to Our Leicester Electricians
Reliable electrical work isn’t just about fixing faults; it’s about giving you peace of mind knowing your home or business is safe, efficient, and future-ready. At Glenfield Electrical Ltd, our team of NICEIC-accredited domestic, commercial and industrial electricians delivers high-quality installations, inspections and maintenance you can trust, backed by clear communication and industry-beating guarantees. To get expert electrical support tailored to your needs, contact Glenfield Electrical Ltd at Unit 5, Mill Lane Industrial Estate, The Mill Lane, Glenfield, Leicester, LE3 8DX, United Kingdom, or call 0116 478 3679 to request a quote and book your service today.
