Saving Energy in Your Office Space

Running an office can get tricky. You have staff, supplies, cleaning, and a whole bunch of other day to day stuff to worry about that most people never even think about. And if you drop the ball, you can end up with a bunch of people not working for the day.

With all this day to day management, the last thing you have time to think about is the less urgent stuff like power usage and energy efficiency.

Here’s the problem though – when you don’t think about this stuff, you can have thousands of dollars in costs that could have been avoided.

So rather than just focus on the day to day, we thought we’d put together a guide you can use to make your office more energy efficient!

Turn The Lights Off

It’s amazing we need to say this, but turn the lights and power off when you leave for the day!

Implementing a strict lights-off and power-off policy has a huge impact on your power bills, yet so many business owners overlook this relatively simple way to save power.

If you’re finding it hard to implement, try placing stickers on switches and reminder notes on their computers for another level of reminder.

Be Smart With Temperatures

For some reason, people get really weird about their temperature settings on their air conditioning and go extreme. You can safely get a bit more economical with the settings without impacting on the comfort levels in your office.

We’ve seen offices with air conditioning set to 26 degrees in Winter, but 18 degrees in Summer. That’s crazy!

For maximum energy efficiency those temps should be more closer to being switched (although that can be a bit too much).

We generally advice setting your temperatures to 20-22 degrees in Winter, and 23-25 degrees in Summer.

Get Efficient With Equipment

You know what uses a lot of power? Old and crappy equipment.

Check:

• Computers (laptops are usually way more efficient if you can use them)
• Monitors (LED monitors are better than LCD)
• Printers (energy ratings can fluctuate quite a bit)
• Fridges (get just enough space and look for higher efficiency ratings)

Upgrade Your Lighting

Your lighting accounts for a major part of your energy usage, so upgrading to LED lighting from fluorescent and incandescent lighting can make a massive difference.

LED lights last a lot longer than traditional kinds, and use a fraction of the energy.

Many people hesitate over this step because of the cost involved, but these days it’s possible to leverage the government to get cheap LED lighting upgrades (read our blog post).

Use Natural Lighting

If you’ve got windows, why not move your curtains or blinds aside to let natural light in while you can, and turn the lights off unless it’s too dark to work.

Natural lighting doesn’t only save you money, it generally makes your staff feel better.

Some businesses even go to the step of installing skylights!

Install Solar

Solar panels and solar powered hot water systems can almost negate your power usage. There’s a lot of controversy and history with the various solar schemes, but more and more businesses are embracing solar.

Not only does solar benefit your business, it’s also better for the environment.

Work From Home Days

Yes, many business owners are absolutely shocked at this recommendation.

But hear us out – outside of the energy savings of having employees work from home, there are a massive amount of studies showing the benefits to your business.

Audit Your Energy Usage

We often install power monitoring devices to audit where our customers power goes. The results are often surprising, but the real benefit is then fixing power leaks.

We’ve seen businesses shave thousands of dollars a year by implementing our recommendations, so this is one tip we recommend to everyone.

So there you have it, 8 ways you can make your office more energy efficient. And of course, if you need help with making your office more energy efficient please feel free to contact your energy efficiency experts at Faraday Group.