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Energy Conservation at the Office

The following tips will not only help your company be more environmentally responsible with energy efficiency, it will help your monthly bills as well.

Lighting

  • Turn off lights when not needed. Especially fluorescent lights, which saves energy, and extends overall lamp life.
  • Reduce or replace inefficient, outdated or excessive lighting within your building.
  • When replacing old lighting equipment, evaluate new technologies that may need fewer fixtures and/or fewer lamps within existing fixtures.
  • Replace incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Ensure you install compatible dimming technology if CFLs are used along with a dimming system.
  • Replace incandescent signs with LED signs. LEDs use about one-tenth the wattage and last 50 times longer than incandescent-lamp signs.
  • Install lighting sensors that automatically turn lights on or off, depending on occupancy. These sensors work well in areas such as conference rooms, break rooms or individual offices that are not occupied continuously.
  • Take advantage of natural daylight: turn off or dim electric lighting when adequate sunlight is available to illuminate interior space.
  • Ensure outdoor lighting is off during daytime.

Temperature

  • Establish a preventative maintenance program for your heating, venting and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment and systems. Regularly change or clean air filters.
  • In winter, set office thermostat offices between 65 and 68 during the day/business hours, and 60 to 65 degrees during unoccupied times.
  • In summer, set thermostats between 78 and 80 degrees during the day/business hours, and above 80 degrees during unoccupied hours.
  • Adjust thermostats higher when cooling and lower when heating during weekends and non-working hours.
  • During summer months, adjusting your thermostat setting up one degree typically can save 2-3% on cooling costs.
  • Consider installing locking devices on thermostats to maintain desired temperature settings.
  • Install programmable thermostats.

Computer Equipment

  • Turn off computers, monitors, printers and copiers during non-business hours.
  • To save energy during periods of inactivity, ensure that the built-in power management system for your office equipment is active.
  • Ensure your screen saver is compatible with the computer's power management features, and that the setup allows the system to go into power saver mode.
  • When purchasing new office equipment, look for ENERGY STAR. The ENERGY STAR office equipment program promotes energy-efficient computers, monitors, printers, fax machines, scanners, copiers and multi-function devices that automatically power down during extended inactivity. Energy saving of 50% or more is possible.
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