Money is tight, and it isn't just the consumer feeling the pressure.

Businesses are also suffering but there are some new ways to cut costs as meteorologist Shannon Murphy explains in Your Green Life.

Twenty-Four hour convenience store appliances don't get much of a break.

"If you look there are almost twenty cooler doors, probably forty or fifty lights and cameras among the store, and the canopy."

It's a large electrical load that can empty business owners' billfolds.
When the Little Store in West Duluth had to be rebuilt, Minnesota Power stepped in to analyze the savings that could result from including energy efficient technology in the new construction.

This audit is part of a free program from Minnesota Power called Power Grant.

"Power Grant is just one of the commercial industrial programs that we have it actually is the one that provides the rebates and incentives for customers."

"If there's an opportunity to save costs in today environments, you should at least look at it. For us it worked out very well"

So well that they saw an annual savings of close to one quarter of their initial investment.

But before preaching to other Northland business owners, I decided to see how the Northland's NewsCenter measured up.

Nine years ago, shortly after the station opened its new building in Duluth's Canal Park, Matt Haley and Associates performed an energy audit here.

"Lighting is one of the things we look at. A lot of buildings have older lighting and no lighting controls on them like occupancy sensors."

Since then the Northland's News Center has installed sensors in many rooms in the building.

Most of the building lights, including the studio, are fluorescent, which are better than incandescent, but the make-up area and weather garden still need the easy lighting update.

But it isn't just lighting that raises energy usage.

"Boiler, air conditioning system, the delivery of air in the building whether that can be more efficient."

Sometimes it is just the fact that machines get dirty.

For other appliances an upgrade to energy-star rated equipment is necessary.

In the audit every nook and cranny is inspected.

"Looks like you got a good 6 to 9 inches or more of this bad insulation"

We should double that.

Other ideas included using optical sensors to shut off hallway lights during the day, shutting off vending machines at night, tightening seals in the garage, and one of the most cost saving ideas... turn off computers at night.

Minnesota Power estimated over one thousand dollars in savings for the station by doing this one task alone... advice that any business can take.

Becoming more energy efficient is not just a help to the environment anymore.

"It's become much more of a focal point for just being able to stay in business"

In Duluth, meteorologist Shannon Murphy, the Northland's NewsCenter.

If you are interested in scheduling an energy audit for your business, you can contact Minnesota Power.