Turn Equipment Off When Not In Use

Affordability

Turning off office machines is easy and it’s free. Changing entrenched behaviour may prove more challenging. Instilling a power-saving culture will work better coupled with a modest investment in smart power strips for shared equipment.

Cost savings

For every 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) that you save by turning things off, you cut $55 from your utility bill.

Environmental considerations

A single computer workstation uses about 120W of power on average. If 10,000 computer workstations across B.C. were completely shut off over nights and weekends, it could potentially cut their collective energy use by 50%. Reducing electricity consumption by businesses, in big ways and small, is vital to helping B.C. reach its goal of electricity self-sufficiency by 2016, and ensuring continued reliance on clean and renewable power.

What you need to know

• Photocopiers, fax machines, cell phone chargers and kitchen equipment add to the energy load of today’s offices. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 80% of the printers used in offices, 70% of copiers, and 20 to 30% of computer monitors and task lights are left on overnight. Many are left on 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. The result is wasted money for building owners and business operators.
• Much of the equipment sold today goes into a low-power sleep mode after a period of inactivity. Unfortunately, most users do not take advantage of this feature. Making sure that these energy-saving modes are enabled can produce significant energy savings. Fostering a conservation culture and encouraging behaviour shift is critical to achieving energy savings.

Employee behaviour

• Engaging your employees in energy conservation and changing workplace behaviour are critical steps to improving energy efficiency and saving costs.
• Regardless of the size and purpose of your company, your employees are key to identifying energy efficiency opportunities and sustaining energy efficiency over the long term. Employee buy-in can make or break your energy efficiency effort.
• Some equipment emits a constant background hum, which contributes to a stale office atmosphere – turning equipment off removes this background stressor.
• Changing workplace behaviour can be challenging. To help you with this challenge, Power Smart has developed resources and tools to assist your organization in developing a creative and effective Workplace Conservation Awareness program. Basic components of an energy awareness campaign include: establishing a clear vision, creating a team, knowing your workplace, developing a communications plan, and recognizing and rewarding success.

Monitors and screen savers
Computers
Printers
Fax machines
Copiers
Other office equipment
Taking it further

Monitors and screen savers

• CRT computer monitors often consume over 60% of the total energy required to run a computer; a single CRT monitor draws about 70 watts of power. If left on overnight and over weekends, it can add $18 or more to an annual energy bill.
• Screen savers are energy wasters. A computer monitor uses almost full power every time those cute fish, photo albums or geometric patterns are on display. Even when the screen saver is set for "blank screen" mode, the monitor uses nearly full power. For significant energy savings, institute a workplace ban on screensavers.
• Instead of a screen saver, use "power management" software. Most computers come with preloaded power management software that actually turns off the power to your monitor after a preset period of inactivity. When you press a key or move your mouse, the monitor powers up where you left off.
• Take advantage of BC Hydro Power Smart’s Product Incentive Program and apply online for your $6 per desktop computer, which uses an approved power management software license. The payback from energy savings and our PIP incentive is often less than six months.
• Reduce the brightness level of the screen to the lowest level you find comfortable for lower energy use all day long.

Computers

• Ensure that computers, monitors, printers and other equipment, such as photocopiers, are completely turned off when not in use. This is the single most important thing you can do to reduce energy consumption. Much of the energy use associated with computers is wasted because office computers are often left on when not in use, including nights, weekends and even extended periods of inactivity during the day.
• Turning your computer on and off will have no significant effect on its operation or life.
• Some offices have automatic backup routines set to run at night. Ask your IT team to explore whether system capacity will allow backups to run during work hours so that computers can be powered down at the end of the day. Alternatively, ask if the backup script can include a power-off command when completed.
• If you must leave your computer on at night for network applications or other purposes, you can still turn off monitors and LCD screens. CRT monitors consume most of the energy used by computers. Trends toward larger displays, more colour and higher resolution have increased the amount of energy required to operate monitors. Note that a screen saver does not reduce energy consumption.
• If your computer must be left on when you are not using it, make sure that you enable the ENERGY STAR® power-management feature on your computer for "sleep” or “standby" mode. Set it to turn the monitor off after 10 minutes and the computer off after 20 minutes.

Printers

• Turn printers off when not in use. Printers are typically left on for extended periods of time, but are only active for a small percentage. This means conventional printers can waste a significant amount of energy.
• Printers will use “phantom loads” of electricity when turned on but not printing. Select a printer with power management capabilities – and make sure you use them. Printers with automatic "power down" features can reduce electricity use by over 65%. ENERGY STAR printers automatically power down to about 3 W to 13 W of power for most printers and larger printers power down to about 54 W to 58 W of power, depending on the number of pages per minute produced, after specified periods of inactivity.

Fax machines

• Select a fax machine with power management capabilities. Fax machines are generally turned on 24 hours a day to receive incoming messages. However, they are actually in use for only about 5% of the total time they are turned on. Fax machines with power management features can reduce energy costs by almost 50%.
• Avoid using full-page cover sheets. Use stick-on labels on the first page of your fax. This reduces the energy use of the fax machine, and saves paper and telephone charges too.
• Consider a plain paper fax machine. People often copy faxes received on thermal paper onto plain paper, increasing the energy demand of copiers and paper costs. In addition, thermal paper costs about five times more per 8.5" x 11" sheet than plain paper. This price difference can more than make up for the increased cost of a plain paper fax machine in less than a year. Thermal paper is also not recyclable.

Copiers

• Operating photocopy equipment efficiently will reduce energy use by 25% or more.
• Turn off your photocopier when not in use. Consider installing a simple plug-in timer to automatically turn the machine on and off at the beginning or end of the day. These timer power bars qualify for a BC Hydro Power Smart $7 incentive per power bar. If you have someone whose role includes closing the office at night, make sure shutting down shared copiers and printers is part of their lock-up routine.
• Be sure the energy-saving feature of your copier is enabled. Because copier speeds are tested with this feature off, copiers are often shipped with the energy-saving mode disabled.

Other office equipment

• Is your office kitchen equipped with a microwave, toaster oven and coffee maker? Put these appliances on a timer power bar and claim your $7 PIP incentive. Do not forget to shut it off at the end of the day and over weekends to eliminate “phantom power” drain.
• Chargers and power cords draw power the entire time they’re plugged in, even when no device is attached. Make sure laptop cords, cell phone chargers and the like are unplugged when not in active use. The easiest approach is to put all these items on a power bar at each desk. Switch off the power bar to eliminate all unnecessary power drain.
• Task lights at workspaces are often left on inadvertently, as are fans, stereos or other personal electrical items. Encourage employees to notice and manage all these power-consuming devices. Consider smart power strips to help power down workspace extras whenever the space is unoccupied, even for just a few minutes.

Taking it further

• Use smart power strips. To reduce energy consumption, "smart" power strips are available that combine an electrical current sensor with a power strip and surge protection. Manufacturers suggest using the products to control a variety of devices that can be turned off when not in use, including calculators, coffee warmers, space heaters and computer monitors. Devices that must stay on – fax machines, modems, computer central processing units and certain printers – can simply be plugged into outlets marked as always on and colour-coded red that are not controlled by the occupancy sensor. BC Hydro Power Smart offers a $7 PIP incentive for these power bars.

FAQ

My screen saver does not have bright colours or moving pictures. I just have it set to “blank screen.” Isn’t that a good power-saving option?
No. Even with the blank screen setting, many monitors use almost as much power as during regular usage. Use your computer’s power management settings instead, to fully turn off your monitor after a period of no use. Use the standby/sleep mode or set your computer to hibernate to save even more energy.

We have already told everyone in the office that they are supposed to shut down computers and office machines. Still, most folks forget. How do we get them engaged?
Changing habits is hard but not impossible. It takes time, goal-setting, senior leadership, consistent reminders and some sort of recognition and celebration of milestones. Dedicate some resources to developing a good employee engagement plan and make sure you follow through consistently over time. After all, your employees will be the ones to spot and recommend future energy-saving options you might otherwise overlook.

We need to keep computers on at night to enable office system backups. It is just not feasible to shut everything down at night. 
Even if your computers need to operate at night, your monitors, photocopiers, chargers, task lighting, printers, fax machines and kitchen equipment can be shut down for big savings. Assess what is truly needed, by whom, at what time – and make a plan to keep things off the rest of the time. You can also install software, like ENERGY STAR-approved Wake-On LAN, which will wake your computers from sleep to run backups or other software updates.