By Tim Ferguson, 14 December 2006 12:15
NEWS
The amount of energy wasted by UK office equipment left on standby over the ten-day Christmas period would be enough to roast 4.4 million turkeys, predicts hardware maker Canon.
With offices deserted, devices left running will use 43.6 million kWh of electricity. In total, the energy wastage will cost UK businesses around £8.66m.
In environmental terms, Canon's research suggests that around 19,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide will be produced unnecessarily - enough to fill the same number of 25-metre swimming pools.
PCs are the worst energy wasters with the prediction half of them will be left on over the Christmas holiday, using 37.8 million kWh of energy. Other equipment will contribute with all fax machines expected to be left running.
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David Smith, marketing director at Canon UK, said the figures show that "businesses that don't turn off their PCs and printers are literally throwing money away as well as damaging the environment over the festive period".
He added: "We have only looked at office equipment that is left in standby mode so imagine how much higher these figures could be if devices are left completely on."
The research was carried out by Canon and partially based on figures from the National Energy Foundation, Infosource and the Carbon Trust.
Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. Roger Huffadine
What utter rubbish - its WINTER so most companies have the central heating on over the Christmas period - even if only at a low level. The PCs and Printers add heat to the environment within the office and cause the thermostats to operate at the same level as they would had the energy come from the central heating units. There is ZERO additional contribution to Global Warming, ZERO extra energy used, ZERO additional cost to the company. When will these morons realise that stupid press releases only serve to dilute any Global Warming message - that is IF Global Warming is anything more than PhD students writing papers.
2. Phil Seedhouse
I agree with Roger Huffadine up to the point where the a/c is still running to keep the equipment cool. How many business premises use the heat extracted from the computer room to heat the offices??
3. Grinch
"festive period" ?
Do they mean Christmas or some other 'festive period' ...... In a PC way?
4. Simon
But Phil, the article wasn't talking about server rooms - where there's usually not much that can actually be turned off. It was talking about general office equipment - PCs, printers, faxes, etc.
Oh yes, and I have a project on to duct heat from the server room to the office to keep us nice and toasty for free :-)
PS - the same argument applies to 'energy saving light bulbs'. Firstly, any savings in the bulbs are then made up by the central heating in most homes for most of the year, secondly, no-one ever tells us the energy reuqired to make them !