Small or Home Office

Overview

• Reduce operating hours in low use areas by switching the lights off or using occupancy sensors. If a room isn’t being used for 10 minutes, shut the lights off.
• Replace incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lamps in light fixtures and exit signs.  They use a quarter the energy to produce the same amount of light.
• Upgrade fluorescent fixtures with T-8 lamps, electronic ballasts and reflectors. A four-lamp fluorescent fixture uses 190 watts.  A two-lamp T-8 fixture with an electronic ballast and reflector uses as little as 66 watts, or 65% less energy.
• Eliminating three watts of lighting energy reduces air conditioning energy usage by one watt.
• Set thermostats at a comfortable 24° C (74°F) for cooling and 20°C (68°) for heating.
• Install automatic thermostats on all heating and cooling equipment.  This reduces cooling and heating requirements during unoccupied hours and could produce savings of 10%.
• Install solar film on windows exposed to direct sunlight to reduce air conditioning load by as much as 30%.
• Have your heating and cooling systems checked yearly.  A properly maintained system will maintain employee and customer comfort, save energy and extend the life of equipment.
• Office equipment can account for 10 - 20% of the energy used in a small business or office.  Consider energy as part of the criteria for selecting copies, printers, computers and terminals.  Assign one employee the job of ensuring that all equipment is shut of at the end of the day.
• A laptop computer uses less energy than a desktop PC.
• When purchasing a computer, ensure that it has an automatic power down function.
• Consider purchasing energy-efficient computer systems and monitors when you are replacing them.  Make sure you enable your computer’s energy saving features.
• Some newer computer and other electronic equipment have a ‘sleep’ or ‘stand-by’ mode that allows them to start immediately when you turn them on.  However, that means they are constantly drawing a small amount of energy.  When possible, you should switch off this option.
• Be sure to at least shut off the computer screen, as 60% of the power used by a computer is used by the monitor.  (The other 40% is used to keep your hard drive spinning and to power electronics.)
• When you are ready to replace a piece of electronic equipment, seriously consider purchasing an ENERGY STAR® model.  ENERGY STAR® equipment is between 15 – 40% more efficient than older models and will save you energy for years to come.