Schools, hospitality venues, community centres and other facilities with open plan areas can help reduce energy bills by using a moveable or folding wall.

That’s the advice of Michael Porter, group sales director at leading partitioning experts Style, who says that one option for tackling soaring energy bills is to only use the room space that you need, whilst maximising room hire potential to help pay for rising costs.

“By installing folding or moveable walls, you can divide a large room into two, three, four or even more smaller rooms,” explains Michael.

“As a result, you only need to heat and light the areas you are using and, if you hire out your facilities, you can increase revenue by hosting multiple events at the same time.

“Take, for example, an installation Style undertook at Christ Church in Sidcup. We first installed a glazed folding wall to separate a community room from the main church hall, and then we were invited back to install an additional solid folding wall to further separate the community room into two.

“When there are no community events, the area no longer requires any heating or light. On busy days, up to two separate gatherings can now take place in that space rather than just one, thanks to the latest folding wall installation and its impressive 42dB acoustic rating.

“We have many case studies where flexible space has been created in the hospitality sector, at local authority venues and for businesses that provide meeting room hire,” continues Michael.

“However, we are now finding that sub-dividing space is also seen as a great way to only heat or light areas required, which is at the forefront of most people’s minds in the current economic climate.”

For more information visit www.style-partitions.co.uk or email [email protected].