How to make an office more efficient – part one
Energy experts are urging American firms to save energy in their offices.
American offices are not as environmentally friendly as they could be and companies could be doing better considering the level of energy and electricity consumption they utilize.
These are the views of American energy experts who state that 18% of energy levels across the nation and 36% of America’s electricity is used in office space occupied by companies, with much of it wasted.
To help combat the issue of energy wastage the energy experts including officials from the US Government, Denver and Edmonton have offered their top ten pieces of advice, with the first five suggestions below.
Firstly companies should look to leave behind the culture they currently work in. Lights should be switched off whenever a room is empty, or energy efficient lights should be bought.
Any individual micro-fridges, mini-lights, coffee makers should be turned off and a communal area where faxes, fridges and coffee makers can be utilized by all of the staff.
The second suggestion is that firms should install computer technology which will automatically shut down or send to sleep computers which have been left on but have no been used for a while. When combining this with the lights there could be savings by as much as 4%.
Lighting is the third point which makes energy experts twitch. Energy efficient LEDs are far more effective than the traditional incandescent bulbs. Besides looking at the best way to light office space, corridor lighting can be tweaked with to decrease the amount of light fittings and painting the wall a lighter color.
Fourthly, office-based firms can carry out a process known as retrocommissioning, This is when an audit of office building systems can be commissioned to find out if any money and energy can be saved. This could be as simple as cleaning out the air filter or fan systems and may be possible to save 4%-6% of energy use.
A fifth possibility is daylighting. This is when technology is bought and installed on rooftops which captures the sunlight and redistributes it around the office more effectively than a skylight. On sunny days energy can be reduced by 10% to 15%.