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Salad Works Bondi Junction is one of a growing number of designer salad lunch spots opening throughout Sydney.
The business uses electricity to run fridges and a cool room, a stove and oven, an industrial-sized mixer, a cash register and lights.
Sean McBride and Phil Abram opened Salad Works in the middle of Bondi Junction Mall in November 2005, offering a range of salad mixes with both cooked and uncooked ingredients as well as hot soups in winter.
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When Sean and Phil put together their business plan for the new shop, they focused on wage and rent bills as well as costs for food. Sean admits they didn’t think too much about electricity bills. But now the business is saving $1000 a year or 12 per cent of its energy costs because it has an electronic smart meter.
When Sean began retrofitting the shop a new smart meter was installed, which measures how much electricity is used in 30 minute intervals. Under the LoadSmart billing system, he is then charged less for electricity used during off peak and shoulder periods and more during the peak.
Even without making any changes to his daily activities, Sean’s electricity bills would be about $700 less compared to the flat pricing system, but the smart meter technology gives him more control over his bill.
In fact a few small changes mean he is saving an extra $300 a year on his energy bill. “I was making my soups and salad dressings in the afternoons, right in the middle of the peak period when electricity was more expensive,” Sean said.
“Now I do this work in the morning, instead of some food preparation which I can do in the afternoons. And where I can, I try to use my oven in the morning and early afternoon. These are very simple changes, but it means I get smaller electricity bills. And this certainly makes very good business sense.”
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