What Happens in a Commercial Energy Audit (And Why the Grant Covers It)

A commercial energy audit is the single most valuable step an Irish business can take to reduce energy costs. It tells you exactly where your money goes, which changes will save the most, and how quickly each investment pays back.

Yet most SMEs have never had one done. The main reasons: they don’t know what’s involved, they assume it’s expensive, or they don’t realise SEAI covers the cost.

This guide walks through exactly what happens during a commercial energy audit — from the initial phone call to the written report — so you know what to expect and why it’s worth doing.

The Quick Version

• A commercial energy audit identifies where your energy spend goes and where waste occurs
• It produces a prioritised list of recommendations with costs, savings, and payback periods
• SEAI’s Business Energy Audit Voucher covers a significant portion of the audit cost
• The site survey takes half a day to a full day and is non-disruptive
• Most audits identify savings of 15–30% of total energy costs
• The audit report is the foundation for grant applications and investment decisions

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Who Should Get an Energy Audit?

An energy audit is worthwhile for any business that:

• Spends more than €5,000/year on energy
• Has never had an audit done (or not in the last 5 years)
• Suspects energy waste but doesn’t know where
• Is planning building renovations or equipment upgrades
• Wants to access SEAI grants for energy improvements
• Needs to understand their BER rating or EPBD compliance position

If your building was constructed before 2010 and you haven’t made significant energy upgrades, an audit will almost certainly identify savings that pay for the audit many times over.

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The Audit Process: Step by Step

Step 1: Initial Discussion

Before any site visit, we start with a conversation:

• What does your business do? Operating hours, occupancy patterns, seasonal variations
• What are your energy costs? We’ll ask for 12 months of bills (electricity, gas, oil)
• What do you already know? Any previous audits, known issues, recent changes
• What are your goals? Cost reduction, compliance, grant access, building improvement

This conversation takes 30 minutes and sets the scope for the audit.

Step 2: Bill and Data Analysis

Before visiting your premises, we analyse your energy bills and any available meter data:

• Consumption profiling — monthly patterns, seasonal trends, year-on-year changes
• Benchmarking — how your energy intensity (kWh per m² per year) compares to similar buildings
• Cost breakdown — separating controllable costs from fixed charges (see our guide to energy pricing)
• Interval data review — if smart meter data is available, we analyse half-hourly consumption patterns to identify baseload, peak demand, and overnight/weekend waste

This analysis tells us what to look for during the site survey. If your building uses twice as much energy as a comparable one, there’s significant waste — and the analysis helps us find it.

Step 3: Site Survey

The site survey is where we physically inspect your building and its energy systems. Here’s what we examine:

Building fabric

• Wall construction and insulation status
• Roof insulation
• Window type and condition
• Draught sealing and airtightness
• Thermal bridges and heat loss points

Heating and cooling systems

• Boiler/heat pump type, age, efficiency rating
• Heating distribution (radiators, underfloor, warm air)
• Controls — thermostats, timers, zoning, weather compensation
• Cooling systems — type, efficiency, controls
• Hot water generation, storage, and distribution

Lighting

• Lamp types throughout the building (fluorescent, LED, halogen)
• Control systems — switches, occupancy sensors, daylight dimming
• Lighting levels vs actual needs
• Emergency lighting systems

Electrical equipment

• Major electrical loads — servers, kitchen equipment, refrigeration, compressors
• Standby loads and overnight base consumption
• Power quality and power factor

Ventilation

• Mechanical ventilation systems — type, capacity, controls
• Natural ventilation provision
• Air handling unit efficiency and maintenance status
• Ductwork condition

Renewable energy potential

• Roof orientation and shading for solar PV
• Available space for battery storage or heat pumps
• Grid connection capacity

During the survey, we take measurements, photos, and notes. We’ll ask questions of your facilities team or whoever knows the building best. The survey takes half a day for a small premises (retail unit, small office) and a full day for larger buildings (hotels, multi-storey offices).

Disruption: Minimal. We work around your normal business operations. The main requirement is access to plant rooms, roof areas, and electrical panels.

Step 4: Analysis and Modelling

After the site visit, we analyse the data and develop recommendations:

• Energy balance — mapping where every kWh goes (heating, lighting, equipment, waste)
• Waste identification — quantifying energy consumed for no useful purpose
• Improvement modelling — calculating the impact of each potential measure
• Cost estimation — getting realistic implementation costs
• Payback calculation — simple payback and, where relevant, NPV analysis
• Grant mapping — identifying which SEAI grants and tax reliefs apply to each measure

Step 5: Written Report

You receive a comprehensive report covering:

Current performance

• Annual energy consumption by fuel type
• Energy cost breakdown
• Energy intensity benchmarks (kWh/m²/year) vs comparable buildings
• Carbon emissions estimate

Findings

• Identified areas of energy waste
• Equipment and systems that are inefficient or poorly controlled
• Building fabric deficiencies
• Control and operational improvements needed

Recommendations

Each recommendation includes:

Field	What It Tells You
Description	What the measure involves
Annual energy saving (kWh)	How much energy it saves
Annual cost saving (€)	How much money it saves at current rates
Implementation cost (€)	What it costs to install
Simple payback (years)	How long until it pays for itself
SEAI grant available	Whether grant funding applies
Carbon saving (tCO2)	Environmental impact
Priority	Recommended implementation order

Recommendations are ranked by payback period — shortest payback first. This lets you start with the measures that deliver the fastest return and use those savings to fund subsequent improvements.

Action plan

A phased implementation plan showing which measures to do first, how to sequence related works, and how to access available funding.

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What Audits Typically Find

While every building is different, certain findings recur in Irish commercial buildings:

The usual suspects

• Heating running outside business hours. Heating a building from 5am when staff arrive at 8:30am. Heating over weekends. No setback temperature.
• Lighting on when nobody’s there. Particularly in back offices, storerooms, corridors, and car parks. No occupancy sensors.
• Old fluorescent lighting. T8 and T12 fluorescent tubes using 2-3x the energy of equivalent LED fittings. Often with magnetic ballasts that waste additional energy.
• Oversized equipment. Boilers, compressors, and pumps sized for peak loads but running inefficiently at part load.
• No monitoring. Nobody tracking consumption, so nobody notices when costs increase.

The surprises

• Standby loads costing thousands per year. Computers, monitors, printers, and kitchen equipment left on overnight and over weekends. We regularly find baseloads of 3-5 kW in small offices — €3,000-€5,000/year doing nothing.
• Air conditioning fighting heating. HVAC zones set to heat and cool simultaneously. More common than you’d think, especially in mixed-use buildings.
• Compressed air leaks. In buildings with compressed air systems, leaks waste 20-30% of compressor energy. The leaks hiss. Walk around when the building is quiet and listen.
• Hot water circulating 24/7. Recirculation pumps running all night to keep hot water available at taps. Timer controls cost under €200 and save hundreds per year.

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The SEAI Business Energy Audit Voucher

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) provides financial support for commercial energy audits through the Business Energy Audit Voucher scheme.

Key details:

• Available to Irish businesses with annual energy spend above a threshold
• Covers a significant portion of the audit cost
• Must use a registered energy auditor
• Audit must follow SEAI’s specified methodology

This means the net cost to your business for a professional energy audit is a fraction of the full price. Given that audits typically identify savings worth 10-50x the audit cost, the ROI is compelling even without the voucher.

How to access it: We handle the SEAI application process as part of our service. You don’t need to navigate the paperwork yourself.

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After the Audit: Making It Happen

A report on a shelf saves nothing. Here’s how to turn audit recommendations into real savings:

Quick wins first

Implement the no-cost and low-cost measures immediately — timer adjustments, heating schedule changes, equipment switch-off policies. These typically save 5-10% at zero cost.

Plan the investment measures

For measures requiring capital expenditure (lighting upgrades, controls, building fabric), plan implementation in phases:

1. Apply for SEAI grants for eligible measures
2. Claim the Accelerated Capital Allowance for qualifying equipment
3. Start with the shortest-payback measures — use the savings to fund subsequent phases

Set up monitoring

Install basic energy monitoring to track consumption before and after changes. This proves your savings are real and catches any drift or regression over time.

Review annually

Energy costs change, equipment ages, and usage patterns shift. Review your energy performance annually against the audit baseline. Most businesses benefit from a follow-up audit every 3-5 years.

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Next Steps

1. Book a commercial energy audit — we’ll assess your premises, analyse your bills, and deliver a report with prioritised, costed recommendations
2. Gather your energy bills — 12 months of electricity and gas/oil bills. Your supplier can provide these if you don’t have them to hand
3. Read our guide to SME energy costs to understand how your spend compares to benchmarks

An energy audit is the starting point for every successful energy efficiency project. It replaces guesswork with data, opinion with evidence, and uncertainty with a clear action plan.

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The businesses that spend the least time worrying about energy costs are the ones that did an audit, followed the recommendations, and set up monitoring to keep things on track. The audit takes a few weeks. The savings last for years.