THE GUV'NOR

Graham Earl Dennet

The licensee of the Rams Head, Grappenhall, in Cheshire, says using alternative energy sources can help your finances

As most landlords know, running a successful public house is a very expensive business - mainly because every man and his dog wants their share of your takings.

One way to offset this slightly could be looking into alternative ways to power and heat your premises. With gas and electricity costs rocketing, the long-term financial benefits of using alternative energy sources will eclipse initial costs. When my Punch Taverns pub was refurbished last year, one of the key problems we had was a lack of a suitable electricity supply - it would have cost a fortune to connect the site to the National Grid in the traditional way.

The option that we went for was a combined heat and power system, which works by using natural gas to fuel converted petrol engines which are connected to generators. The heat created in this process is used to warm the pub and the system is completely carbon neutral.

When power stations produce electricity, up to 40% is lost in the transmission cables, but generating my own does away with this loss. An added bonus is that any over-production is sold back to the National Grid and used locally.

It's early days, but I'm certainly saving some money. To save more I like to do most of the buying for my pub, picking up the bargains as they present themselves - plus it gets me away from the pub occasionally.

The vehicle I use for collections is environmentally friendly, having been converted to liquefied petroleum gas - the added bonus is that it's less than 50p a gallon. We also grow much of our produce on site and use spent oil to generate more fuel. Pubs that can should consider measures like these to save money and maybe help the planet out a bit too.