IT & small power equipment

• Encourage all staff and students to turn off equipment at the end of the day. This saves energy costs, but also lowers cooling costs and extends the lifespan of the equipment. A single computer left on 24 hours a day costs £45 per year. With turn-off and standby features enabled you could reduce it to £10.
• Assign clear responsibility for switching off equipment.
• Activate automatic standby and power down modes after set times of inactivity, like 15 minutes. Switch off monitors to save up to 60% of energy during break times.
• Make sure fume cupboards have the right sash height, use them only for the stages of the experiment that present a hazard and switch them off when not in use. Don’t use them as bench space or to store chemicals.
• For arts and crafts studios, make sure kilns are full when fired and try to fire them at night. Soldering irons shouldn’t be turned on when not needed as they are heavy energy users.
• Switching vending machines off at night and during weekends can save enough energy to print 7m A4 pages.
• A lower use of paper leads to a more efficient workspace, less printing, less storage and less damage to the environment (through overuse of resources and incorrect recycling).

MYTH: Screensavers save energy!

TRUTH: No, they are designed to increase the lifespan of the screen but may even use more energy than during normal operation if particularly colourful or animated.