Consider for a moment a report issued in July 1998 by the Energy Information Administration. Of the energy consumed by a typical commercial building or business:
As we can see, there are some easy ways we can impact our energy usage in offices by simply adjusting where, how and when we use items. This survey, although published in 1998, was actually conducted in 1995 by the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). As we think back to 1995, the way offices were set up is not the same way as they are set up now in 2009.For example, not every desk in 1995 had a computer. In 2009, it is a job necessity. When you consider how much energy a computer uses, even when put into standby mode or shut off (the computer will continue to draw "phantom loads" when plugged into the wall, despite it being shut off), the amount of energy a typical office uses well exceeds the 16% quoted in the 1995 survey.
Let us discuss ways we can impact our energy bills, and thus the impact to the environment by using less energy.
Swap Out Incadescent Lightbulbs for Florescent Lightbulbs
This makes good sense whether you're at work or at home. Although there are plenty of businesses that use florescent bulbs, if you look around you'll undoubtedly come across the older type of bulbs. Using florescent bulbs not only reduces the amount of energy used to light the same size area, but your cooling bill as well. Incadescent lightbulbs are notorious for emitting high amounts of heat which just serve to heat the immediate environment. By switching to the smaller compact florescent bulbs, you eliminate that area of energy consumption.
For those wanting to do this at home, keep this in mind: About three years ago my wife and I counted up all the lightbulbs in our house and went out to buy an equal number of the compact florescant bulbs. We spent just over $120 for the entire house. Since then, we've had a total of only two bulbs burn out on us requiring us to spend an additional $6 to replace them.
If you consider how often an incadescent bulb burns out (if you're lucky you can get by for a year without replacing one, but we were replacing each bulb on average twice a year) and how much heat they produced requiring us to increase our A/C usage during the summer months, we actually saved money. We calculated over the same period had we kept our incadescent bulbs we would have spent close to $240.
On top of the savings over a three year life of the florescent bulbs, we also noticed an immediate drop in our utilities bill. During the summer months our electric bill ran around $75. Within the first full month of us installing the bulbs, our electric bill dropped to $55, and that was at a time of the year that is typically the hottest and when we tended to use our A/C more frequently.
Make Sure Heating and Cooling Vents are Clear
This is a perfect example of how a simple thing like making vents have clear access to a room can reduce costs. Cleaning filters on a regular basis or removing objects from in front of air returns or exit vents means that the fans, air conditioning units or heating units do not have to work harder or longer. Allowing air to circulate freely in an office or home can easily cut down on your electric bill. In addition, make sure your maintainence department has a regular schedule of checking for leaks in the ductwork behind walls or in ceilings and to check the drain pans on the heaters and cooling equipment. Clogged drain pans or leaks just mean the equipment has to work harder which translates into more electricity.
In addition, your company should be doing a checkup of the HVAC system at least twice a year; once in the spring and once in the fall. This ensures that the equipment is tuned correctly and that it isn't causing problems in the form of too much or too little air into the building. The same thing should be done at home. It may seem like it is an expense you can live without, but think about how much dust, dirt and general disrepair and abuse your heating and air conditioning units take during the year. Over time this can cause more energy useage leading to higher and higher utility bills.
Is Your Thermostat Your Enemy?
Look around your office or home...do you happen to have one of those older manual dial thermostats to control your heating and cooling? Replace them with digital programmable monitors. If you're in an office, lock them up or place a cover over them. This prevents people from tampering with the settings and you can avoid the scenario of competing interests in the office where first the heater kicks on followed immediately by the A/C unit.
As a rule of thumb, plan on setting your winter daytime temperature at around 68 degrees and your nighttime temperature at around 55 degrees. For the summertime, your daytime temperature should be around 75 degrees.
This may result in complaints from the staff, but when it comes to the temperature you've never had a perfect temperature to appease everyone. If its too cold they can wear layers, if they're too hot they'll dress appropriately. Having a programmable thermostat means you can reliably control your energy useage.
Who in the World Cleans at Night?
Think about it. At home, do you typically decide that you're going to do your cleaning of the house from 10 PM to 2 AM? Why are businesses across the country doing it? Chances are, they've set it up in such a way so that the cleaning crew doesn't interfere with the employees during daytime hours.
But consider the fact that if you have a cleaning crew at the office late at night, more than likely you're spending additional energy costs by lighting the building. Drive past any major city with skyscrapers at around 10 or 11 at night and you'll definitely see lights on several floors despite the late hour.
By shifting the cleaning to during the day, or at least towards the end of the work day, you save energy costs by being able to shut all the lights off in the building at night. Take it one step further by getting all the lights in the building on a timer so that they go off at the same time every night.
Install Lighting Sensors in Rooms
Replacing the standard light switch with a sensor in rooms that don't see a lot of traffic, such as conference rooms, has the added benefit of shutting off the lights for the careless employee that leaves them on after they are done with the room. In homes it can be even more effective if you have children. Not only do you avoid the risk of kids leaving lights on, you don't have to juggle that pile of toys, clothes or groceries to reach for a light switch.
Phantom Loads
As mentioned earlier, even when shut off many appliances continue to draw power from the grid. The biggest energy hogs in your home or office tend to be your computer(s) or television(s). At work and at home you should adopt policies that require these sorts of appliances to be plugged into power strips. When done using them, require your employees or family members to shut the power strips down. Better yet, place them on a timer.
If you do the math, a typical LCD flat screen monitor for your computer, if plugged in all the time (even when its turned off) uses around $95 a year in electricity. That may not seem like a lot, but when you consider most medium sized businesses have anywhere from 100 to 200 computer monitors for their staff, that can add up.
If you have a policy that requires users to put their equipment on a power strip and shut it off every day at the end of the work day, that cost drops nearly 50% to around $50 a year.
As you can see there are a variety of quick and easy steps you can take to start saving money, whether you are at home or at work. Since we are all concerned about protecting our cash flows it should be no surprise that the subject of saving energy can actually help save money. Not only that, you're reducing your carbon footprint by using less energy generated by power stations across the country.
In my next post, I'll discuss ways you can implement energy generating devices at your home or work that allow you reduce, or completely eliminate, your dependence on the power grid.
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