Switch off

Today I'm urging you to switch things off when you're not using them. Lights, computers, televisions, printers, photocopiers. You name it - if you're not using it, switch it off.
When you power down your laptop or computer, it's still using energy - even after the battery has been fully charged. I didn't believe this at first but it's true. I have a work laptop sitting next to my home laptop that has been unused for a couple of days now. However, it's been plugged into the mains all this time and the power pack was warm, proving that it had been wasting energy all that time. I unplugged it immediately and will do the same with my home laptop once I've finished using it.

Here's some more facinating facts that I've picked up from the The Carbon Trust website:

• Lighting an office overnight wastes enough energy to heat water for 1000 cups of tea.
• A photocopier left on overnight uses enough energy to produce over 1500 copies.
• Leaving a PC monitor on all night wastes enough energy to microwave six dinners.
• Switching off non-essential equipment in an office overnight saves enough energy to run a small car for 100 miles.

At my current place of work, the security guards turn off the lights after hours - which is great news - perhaps you can encourage your security guards to do the same. I wonder if I can convince them to turn off the photocopiers too?

I'm a major culprit when it comes to switching off. I often leave a room without turning the lights off, so to get into the habit, I'm going to leave a post-it note by each switch saying "SWITCH OFF"! Once I get into the habit I can remove them as they are a bit unsightly!

Also, before I go to bed I'm going to switch off the television at the mains so that it isn't on standby. Here's some interesting facts from Powergen's Energy Efficiency website...

A television on standby uses 7% of the electricity of a television that is switched on and 85% of the electricity used by your VCR is consumed when it's not actually on!

...and this one...

Set the screen saver on your computer to "blank screen". Screen savers were originally designed to prevent screens being burnt by a constant image, but they aren't necessary for modern screens.

Well there's some great reasons to switch off - after all, if you do, you'll save money too, not just the environment.

caldini