At work

 

WATCH OVER YOUR INVOICING

  • You must know the capacity you have subscribed and whether it really meets the needs of your firm. Subscribing greater capacity than necessary involves unnecessary expense.
  • Check whether your bill displays the supplement for Reactive energy between the 3.3% and -3.7% brackets. If it falls out of these values, the supplier will charge you a surcharge. In order to avoid this, you can install condenser batteries to decrease the consumption of this kind of energy.
  • Check the various electric rates that may best apply to your consumption schedules.

 

SAVING STRATEGIES

  • Low-energy bulbs enable to reach a general saving of 80%. Cutting-edge fluorescent tubes use up 80% less than incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times more.
  • The replacement of electromagnetic ballasts for fluorescent tubes involves a saving of 10% and expands the service life of the tubes by 50%. Moreover, it entails an increase of 15% in brightness
  • Install presence detectors in areas of intermittent use.
  • Regulating the flux sent off by the light fixtures in line with the light coming from outdoors with photoelectric cells helps reduce consumption.
  • Use a lighting control system to regulate the necessary light levels in each room, to power on and off lights in a programmed way, etc., to achieve higher saving.
  • Avoid halogen lamps as much as you can, replacing them by compact fluorescent bulbs. You will save around 60% of energy.
  • Diode lamps are very useful for ambient lighting with minimum consumption.
  • In winter conditions, an indoor temperature between 19- 20ºC is enough to achieve a good sense of comfort. In summer this comfort feeling is achieved with a temperature of 25ºC. Every degree increased in heating or cooling consumes 8% more energy.
  • Maximise industrial processes to save in the cost involved in the various switching on and off operations.
  • The suitable maintenance of equipment and machines prevents breakdowns and poor performances.
  • New technologies are more efficient. Check whether it is worth for you to renew your equipment.
  • Switch off electric devices at the end of a working day and when you go away for lunch.
  • Avoid using screensavers, as they increase energy consumption in computer systems. It is advisable to set them up so that they fall into sleep mode after a given time of inactivity or use the “Blank Screen” screensaver.
  • If you are thinking of renovating the computer systems in your firm, it may be a good idea to find out what are the trade marks and the systems designed to be further recycled (up to 95%). Recycling, apart from keeping the environment clean, helps to reduce the energy required to manufacture new equipment.
  • If your work flow so allows it, opt for multifunction systems as you will save energy using a single device instead of, for example, a fax, a printer, a scanner and a photocopier.
  • Apart from having the best features and design, LCD monitors use up much less energy than traditional tube monitors.
  • Minimize the use of items running on batteries (such as wireless mice, etc.) as they involve high energy consumption in relation to battery manufacturing – apart from being highly polluting.
  • The process of printing documents is one of the most expensive and polluting ones in an office. Not only because we use a lot of energy and paper but because it yields waste as toner and cartridges. These are difficult to recycle and are expensive. Consider installing a “zero paper office”, that is, give priority to the use of e-documents versus printed documents.
  • In order to know exactly the saving potential of your firm, ask a professional to carry out an energy saving plan.