In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, many people have been forced into working from the confines of their homes. While this isn’t exactly a bad thing in terms of convenience, it can be tricky to manage the additional expenses that come along with the shift.
While operating a home office, it is necessary to employ practices that are energy efficient to cut down on expenses such as lower energy bills.
Here are a few tips you can utilize to trim down the amounts on your monthly energy bills.
1- Utilize power strips
Most devices that are used today continue to use energy when they are connected to a power outlet. It happens even if the device is switched off; this is known as standby power. In fact, “standby power” drainage accounts for 5-10% of residential power drainage.
Some home offices may require the usage of several devices, which, if left plugged in, will consume standby power even if they are not being used. An easy method to combat this problem is to opt for power strips with switches.
After plugging in all your appliances such as laptops, computers, and phones into a power strip, all you need to do is to turn the power strip off when the applications are not in use.
2- Use your device’s power management settings
Most modern laptops, mobiles, PCs, and other devices come with power management settings.
You can tune these settings to minimize energy consumption. It has been estimated that for a single device (PCs to be specific), you can save between $10-100 per year in electricity usage by optimizing your power management settings.
Through power management, you can reduce the need to have your pc boot up every time; this will also save you some time. To set up power management, you can follow the instructions on your device.
Other tips to help conserve energy on your PC (or laptops) include:
- When you leave for a short while (10-20 mins), turn your monitor off.
- When you go for longer (an hour), put your computer in sleep mode.
- When you leave for the day, turn your PC entirely off.
3- Opt for a provider that is energy efficient
The most efficient way to save energy is to switch your source to a more efficient provider.
Efficient providers utilize green tariffs. This means that all or at least some of the energy you get is produced by sustainable or renewable energy resources. These include solar power, hydroelectric power, or energy from wind farms.
By opting for such energy-efficient providers, not only will you be able to manage the budget of your home business more efficiently, but you’ll also get the added satisfaction of knowing that you are contributing to the wellbeing of the environment.
Furthermore, you can opt for equipment labeled “ENERGY STAR” as these are primarily focused on energy efficiency.
4- Keep up to date with the latest equipment
This is primarily aimed at professions whose home-office environments are heavily energy-dependent.
One example of such a profession is that of nurses. For nurses who work remotely, staying up to date with the latest equipment models is very energy efficient. This is because each newer model of equipment is more focused on environmental sustainability than the last. But, of course, to learn about and gain such equipment, nurses need to be appropriately qualified and pass the NCLEX RN exam.
5- Visit a coworking space
Nowadays, sustainable coworking is trending. However, coworking is generally frowned upon if it is not accompanied by a green (environmentally friendly) status.
Aside from sharing resources between multiple entities, coworking spaces apply many other methods that have led to their popularity.
Visiting such spaces first hand and getting a feel of the environment and the methods they employ can give you a general idea of the direction to carry your home office forward.
Finding a coworking space isn’t exactly hard; all you have to do is a simple google search along with your current location, like coworking spaces, and you’ll be ready to list out targets for your visit.
For home offices, employing energy-saving methods means cutting down on unnecessary expenditure. There are lots of methods to do so, and these range from controlling behavioral patterns to upgrading the technology you employ.