Conserve Energy for Better Tomorrow

Energy-efficient solutions reduce office energy consumption (for instance on cooling and heating) by up to 25% without the major modifications in the building. Payback is very fast, often in less than a year. Energy saving solutions capitalize on human behaviour also.

You cannot manage what you don’t measure! An expert measures office power consumption at several levels: from the organization and building to individual circuits, equipment, and employees. This information empowers our clients to identify’ and address’ their greatest sources of energy waste, which typically results in 10% energy reduction.

Online energy management tools can automatically shut off power to office equipment’ such as desktops, monitors, laptops, printers, copiers and vending machines’ during off hours when the devices are not in use. This level of fine-grained control typically reduces office energy consumption another 9%.

Engage the people inside it. By measuring the energy consumption of individual employees and explaining that to the employees motivates them to shut off monitors, turn off lights, and adopt other energy conservation practices. This not only reduces office energy consumption yet another 6% on average, it engages the entire workforce in a common “green” goal, which has been shown to benefit employee morale and retention.

Organizations launch energy-saving initiatives for a variety of reasons: cost savings, legal compliance, and environmental concern, to name a few. Regardless of the reason, after the organization has measured, managed, motivated, and measured again, it is critical to report its results to key stakeholders.

Before purchasing office equipment, make sure the equipment you are looking at is energy-efficient. A great deal of time and effort by many brilliant minds has gone into making office equipment more energy-efficient over the years, it would be a shame to waste it! Energy-efficient office equipment goes into a low power (“sleep”) mode after lying idle for a certain number of minutes, which can lead to drastic energy savings.

The same old laws of physics apply to office equipment like computers, computer monitors, printers, copiers, scanners, and fax machines. In particular: turn them all the way off when not using them. For example, it looks nice when you hit the “start” key on a copy machine and a copy spits right out. But like all other “instant on” devices, copiers stay “warm” by burning juice ‘to save money, turn them on only when you are ready to make a copy.

Maybe the biggest misconception about office energy use is that computers and monitors in “sleep” and “screensaver” mode aren’t using ANY electricity. If you can hit a key and the thing lights up, that means it’s in “warm” mode and is still consuming plenty of electricity. Turn off computers and monitors (monitors usually have that convenient “off” button right in front of your nose) overnight or even for long lunches.

The obvious exception to this rule would be computers on networks and fax machines which have to be on to be accessed remotely at all times with or without an operator present.

AC-DC converters/chargers are always on. Those big chunky electric plugs convert alternating current to direct current for certain devices such as external disk drives, external computer speakers, scanners, modems, network hubs, etc. Got one of those? Touch it some time ‘while plugged in, it’s warm, meaning it burns electricity even when the device it powers is turned off.

Flat-panel monitors offer significant energy savings. The technology that allows computer monitors to take up less space also uses a lot less power ‘only 1/3 of the power of conventional CRT monitors.

Besides reduced power consumption there are a number of other advantages to flat-panel LCD monitors over conventional displays (the familiar CRT or “cathode ray tube” TV-set type screens). LCDs are much thinner and require less desktop space to rest on than conventional monitors. In addition, manufacturers claim that flat-panel monitors offer less glare and eyestrain with brighter/crisper images, and that they emit very little radiation.