Ways to Save Energy in the Office
With the cost of energy increasing year to year, more people are trying to save energy and save money at home. This practice can be duplicated in the workplace, where millions of businesses are still using extreme amounts of energy and wasting a lot of money.
So, if you’d like to help your workplace save energy, as well as money and contribute to being environmentally friendly, be sure to follow as many of the energy saving tips for commercial buildings below as you can.
Energy Saving Tips for Heating
- Lower the temperature on your thermostat. This energy saving tip can save you a huge amount year to year. Lowering it by just a few degrees will have low impact on staff and high impact on your energy usage (and bills).
- Remind all of your employees to keep all of the windows and doors shut in your office.
- Make sure the areas in your office being used the least (i.e. storage areas and corridors) are not being heated to as high a temperature as the main areas in your workplace.
- Be sure to take note of any faults you spot, such as draughts coming in through windows and doors, holes in the building etc. And get them seen too in order to prevent wasting any energy. You may even need to have a professional energy auditor in to evaluate your building’s air tightness.
Energy Saving Tips for Lighting
- Ensure your employees always turn off the lights when they leave a room, provided it is empty of course.
- Make sure the lights are turned off if daylight is making the room light enough as it is. After all, daylight is free!
- Exchange all your light bulbs for energy saving LED bulbs. Not only do they use less electricity but they also last a lot longer than other traditional bulbs do.
- If you can, make the switch to automatic sensor lighting. These lights will only turn on when they sense movement and automatically switch off after a period of no movement. This ensures that you won’t waste energy if someone has forgotten to switch off a light.
Energy Saving Tips for Electrical Equipment
- You need to ensure you and all your employees turn off their electrical equipment. i.e. Computers, printers, photocopiers and chargers whenever they are not being used. Leaving anything switched on will cause it to use up energy and cost you money.
- Don’t be fooled into thinking you’re saving money and energy by using standby, since the majority of standby modes still use up to 70% of the normal energy consumption!
- When you are purchasing new equipment, make sure you only buy items which are rated highly (Energy Star Rated) in terms of energy efficiency. Most electrical items will now have a label displayed on them, which ranks them for their energy efficiency and if not, they are probably best avoided.
James writes for Jaga. When not writing, he can often be found saving energy–or forcing others to.
