How to lower electricity bill for a home office
Running your business from home has huge advantages, the foremost being that you don’t have to waste time, energy and money to travel to your workplace. However, running an office from home also means that your electricity bills can go through the roof.
Here are just a few simple yet cost effective ways through which I am not only trying to lower electricity bill for my home office, but also helping the environment.
Use CFL: Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) are a great way to save energy over time. For instance, in my work room I was earlier using a tube light which was switched on for roughly 7-8 hours a day. Now I have installed a 20W CFL, which leads to power saving of approximately 140-160w a day or 4200-4800watts a month and 50,400-57,600watts a year. Based on Rs. 3.9/KWH I pay to the electricity company, I will end up saving Rs. 196.56 – 224.64 a year. By switching two other frequently used lights in my home to 15W CFL (which I had done earlier), I expect to save Rs. 500-800 a year on electricity bill (Rs. 40-60/month).
Make your computer energy efficient: In a home office like mine, biggest electricity consumer is my computer (not counting refrigerator and AC/Cooler). Just by enabling Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST) in my Core2Duo powered computer, I can reduce energy consumption of the computer by almost 40-50%, as majority of the time the computer isn’t working at full load and thus does not requires full processing power of the CPU and when the need arises, EIST automatically makes the processor run at full power without a hint of a lag.
You can also use power management functions to automatically put your computer/monitor on standby mode when you are not using them for a pre-specified amount of time. However I personally feel it is best to simply switch off the monitor and/or the computer, as computer continues to consume power while in the standby mode.
Switch off things you do not need: Just by switching off/unplugging lights, appliances and gadgets which aren’t being used, we can save energy. Every component that is on standby mode is consuming electricity, whether it is your DVD player, printer, speakers, TV or computer. So make sure each of your appliance/gadget is either plugged into a wall socket or to a power strip and can be manually switched off to save power.
Buy energy efficient gadgets/appliances: In case you are in market for a new computer, monitor or any other gadget/appliance, make sure to buy an energy efficient variant as it would end up saving power bill in the long run.
Apart from this, you can keep your energy costs down by keeping the windows open and working in the natural light during the day (if your room/home gets enough of it) and switching on cooler/air conditioner, only when you need to.
Thanks for such tips and awareness on saving energy. Also, installing HVAC systems into our homes and offices could greatly reduce our consumption bills on electricity.
It is very important to know on how to save up energy at home. with this, it is better to use energy saver appliances and install energy efficient system.
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