HVAC Retrofit

10kw Solar Array

Office Efficiency

Office Efficiency

Even though we have projects as large as our solar_array and new heating_and_cooling_system, some of the best ways to save energy (and money) are to implement small changes. Here's what we have done so-far:

• Compact Fluorescent Bulbs:
Other than in a handful of places, such as the bathrooms & accent lighting, we use all fluorescent bulbs. The majority of our interior lighting comes from overhead T-8 lamps. During sunny days, we only use 9-watt CFL bulbs in our desktop lamps. This drastically reduces the single largest source of electrical consumption in our office. Going from T-12 to T-8 bulbs reduced our overhead lighting consumption 20%. We're looking next to integrate an automated daylight-dimming mechanism, to even further decrease our electrical consumption. Our switch from incandescent bulbs to CFLs in our desk lamps reduced task light consumption 85%.


• Occupancy Sensors:
This is the single application where we use incandescent bulbs. We have yet to find CFL bulbs that work well with the occupancy sensors in our restrooms. The CFL's burn out very quickly with the auto-sensors and have a slight warm-up period. However, we aren't greatly worried about the power consumption of our dozen 'traditional' bulbs. Several minutes after the room is vacated, and the air is refreshed, the sensor automatically shuts off the lights and the fan.


• Timed Appliances
After a little tinkering around, we discovered that each of our large copier/printers consume between 100 & 150 watts each while waiting for use. With 5 appliances in place, that amounts to over 5kw needlessly consumed each night! Our solution was to place the printers on timers. This single addition saves us 1.8 megawatt hours annually in consumption.


• Computer Power Settings
You'd be amazed what gains can be had with proper adjustments of your workstation BIOS. Our workstations automatically boot 10 minutes prior to our arrival. While this doesn't save energy, it does however dramatically cut back on the time we need to 'set up' our workstations for a day's work. If we save 2 minutes each day for everyone, we're able to bill an extra 300 hours annually.

As for saving power, our systems are standardized to shut off hard drives after 5 minutes, put the monitor on standby in 10 minutes, and put the computer on standby after 15 minutes of non-use. Company-wide, this noticeably reduces our daily electrical consumption.



• Internal Power Audits
Using the 'kill-a-watt' device, we frequently, internally audit our equipment electrical consumption. This device is directly responsible for our ability to do this, and is well worth its minuscule cost.


• Recycling & Paperless Ideals
The simplest way for us to reduce our impact on the environment is to reduce our consumption. We attempt to use the least amount of paper as possible, and what we do use, we recycle. We frequently use tablet PC's instead of printing paper reports, and arrange small department meetings near our large workstation monitors, instead of scheduling a large meeting in one of our conference rooms.

© Johnson Braund Design Group, Inc.