How to Save Energy in Your Home Office

It’s no secret the workforce is becoming more mobile these days.

Say that describes you.

You’re one of the lucky employees who gets to work from home most or all of the days of the week.

You win in nearly every way. But that does mean you use more of your own energy.

How do you keep efficient and save money when you work from home?

Here’s some ideas:

• Fine-Tune Your Computer’s Power Management Settings
  We don’t have a complete walkthrough on this. There’s plenty of different computers and methods.
  But all come with the ability to be on standby. That means you can have your computer on and consuming 100% of the electricity it needs, completely off, or partially on and consuming less than 100% of the power it would otherwise.
  Turn your screen’s brightness down as much as you can. Make sure standby mode activates automatically when you leave your computer idle for a certain number of minutes.
  You can save $25 – $75 per year this way.
• Use A Power Strip, and Ideally a Smart Power Strip
  A power strip works better than plugging your devices into the wall. The benefit is you can turn all your devices and chargers off at once.
  That saves you around $100 per year.
  A smart power strip does this automatically for you as you stop using the devices. It’ll boost your savings even further.
• Use LED Bulbs
  LEDs are getting to the point where they don’t take half a lifetime to offset their costs. Watch for special deals on them.
  If you need to use lights in your office frequently and can’t get by on natural light, consider getting LEDs.
• Use a Laptop, if Possible
  Laptops consume 1/3 of the power of a desktop computer. Desktops can give you larger screens so you see more, and they cost less. But laptops are the clear winners when it comes to energy savings.
  And hey, why not put a recliner in your office and work from your laptop while sitting in that?
• Use Power Management Software
  Yep, there’s software for nearly everything. If you don’t like your operating system’s default method of power management, search around for power management software.
  Besides, there’s so many settings to play with and adjust these days, why not just let software take care of it for you?

Saving energy in your home office doesn’t need to be complicated. Follow these simple steps, and you’re well on your way to great energy savings.