Office Equipment
 In the office most of the same energy saving rules apply as for homes, including heating and cooling, water heaters (with or without showers), and sometimes kitchens with refrigerators, a microwave and dirty dishes. Some of those dot-com businesses even had laundry area at work as a weird sort of perk for those employees who never leave (or that's the rumor anyway). The same rules also apply for lights and bulbs, although we have a couple of embelishments to offer:
- In common areas like kitchens or file rooms where people come and go without turning out the lights, use motion sensors to save on energy in between visits.
- Your energyhawk.com webmaster has worked with software developers who would sooner toss their computers out the window than work under fluorescent tubes -- but guess what? The wizards developing compact fluorescent bulbs must have been software developers because the compact tubes we've been seeing lately use a coating that makes the light much warmer. Just to be on the safe side, maybe try a bulb or two in strategic locations to figure out what works best before retrofitting the entire office.
The following pages concerning office equipment apply equally whether SOHO ("small office / home office") or Fortune 500 workers are involved:
The technology that allows flat panel computer monitors to take up less space also uses a lot less power -- only 1/3 of the power of older CRT monitors.
Homework is available for the research-prone. Before purchasing office equipment, make sure the equipment you are looking at is EnergyStar® compliant.
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