Improving Your Office’s Energy Efficiency with Energy Star Appliances
For most businesses in New Jersey, electricity is one of the largest expenses next to payroll. HVAC, lighting, computers, and even a break room can add up to a large monthly electric bill. One of the easiest ways to reduce that bill is by improving your business’ energy efficiency.
What is Energy Star?
Energy Star is a program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy that promotes energy efficiency. The program provides ratings on the energy consumption of products, appliances, and devices. Simply put, Energy Star is a government-backed symbol that certifies energy efficiency.
Today, the most common office products and appliances come with Energy Star ratings. But is it worth it?
Are Energy Star Appliances Worth It?
When comparing the price of an Energy Star rated product and a non-efficient product you may be asking yourself, “if it worth it?”
The quick answer is “yes”. The price premiums for Energy Star office products such as printers, copy, machines, refrigerators, computer screens, TVs, and so on are small and pay themselves off very quickly when you compare the amount of money you will spend on electricity.
But to better answer the question, we ran a comparison between normal appliances and Energy Star-rated appliances.
To start with, we reviewed the premiums on Energy Star-rated products. Contrary to what most people think the price difference between Energy Star-rated products and non-rated products is between $30 and $200, depending on the appliance or product.
However, with operating cost savings offered by Energy Star rates appliances, the payback period of almost every product we examined was between 1-3 years, in all cases well below the life expectancy of the product.
This means that most additional premiums you pay for an Energy Star rated product will pay themselves off in savings within 3 years, at which point you start saving every month and every year after that.
Here’s an example. The EPA estimated that the average price premium for an Energy Star rated refrigerator is about $30. An Energy Star rated refrigerator will save you between $15 and $20 in a year, which pays the price difference off in about one and a half years.
It may seem small but consider that a single office can have hundreds of products and appliances running at any one given time, making every small bit of savings count.
What Should I Do with Old Appliances?
If you have started to swap your old office appliances for Energy Star rated equipment you might feel odd about throwing away “perfectly good” old computers, refrigerators, and so on, if they “still work”. For example, you may be tempted to put the old printer in a back conference room where it “won’t get used as much.”
The truth is, having these old appliances around will waste energy every time they are used. Also, a lot of office equipment still uses a small amount of electricity even when not being used. Just by being plugged in, old office equipment can start to add hundreds to your monthly electric bill.
The best thing to do is find out how to recycle them. Not only do tax rebates usually exist for buying and installing energy-efficient equipment but donating old still workable office equipment or recycling it can serve as a tax write-off. While I’m not trying to give you tax advice in this article and will ask you to verify anything you read here with your tax accountant, my point is there are usually always additional incentives and benefits to improving your office’s energy efficiency.
Energy Star Rated HVAC Systems
I’m making a special mention about your HVAC system because between 30-60 percent of your electricity costs are used to run your HVAC system.
Old HVAC systems are not only built less efficiently, but they can often become clogged and overworked and so consume that much more electricity to run.
If your HVAC system is over 15 years old, it would be worth checking into a new Energy Star rated system instead of continuing to repair it every time it breaks.
While the upfront costs of a new HVAC system can be hefty, an Energy Star-rated HVAC system can reduce your electric bill by 10-30 percent. Not to mention the improved airflow and comfort.
How Much Do Energy Star Products Save?
According to one study done on Energy Star-rated office appliances, “Energy Star appliances will save you 10% to 50% of the energy required, depending on the comparison model – and much more if you are replacing an old appliance.”
To fully answer this question, stop for a second and look around your office or think about how many electrical appliances and equipment you have running.
TVs, computers, computer screens, break room fridges, microwaves, toasters, vending machines, space heaters, printers, copy machines, fax machines, air filters, coffee makers, water coolers, beverage stations, and so on.
Any given office may have hundreds of products that all use a small amount of electricity, but they all add up to “too big” of a bill.
By replacing them with Energy Star appliances, you will slowly start to see a lower and lower electric bill and eventually energy savings.
List of Common Energy Star Rates Office Equipment
Today, you can find pretty much any piece of equipment, appliance, or product with an Energy Star rating. But to give you some idea of what you can start to switch out, here is a list of the most common office appliances that you can swap out:
- Computers
- Computer screens
- Servers
- Hubs and network routers
- Printers
- Fax machines
- Copy machines
- Scanners
- Telephones
- Desk lamps
- Cleaning equipment
- Televisions
- Refrigerators
- Toasters
- Toaster ovens
- Microwaves
- Water coolers
- Vending machines
- Soda machines
- Coffee machines
- Space heaters
- Fans
- Air filters
How Bio Developing Can Help
Trying to figure out how to replace all your appliances and equipment with more efficient models can be quite time-consuming. Finding the best and most efficient appliances at the right price can take time. Not to mention running a full cost savings analysis to make sure your investment has fast ROI.
At Bio Developing, we help businesses become more energy efficient by handling all the work for you and providing you with a final proposal of how to be more energy-efficient.
Contact us to speak to one of our energy-efficiency experts or to schedule a free consultation.
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