Taking Your Home Office Green?
March 20, 2009
Two years ago, I started looking for ways to reduce my energy bills. Electric rates continue to skyrocket! I'm sure everyone wishes they could increase their rates 15 to 30% a year.
One of the biggest consumers of electricity in our home offices is our computer systems, followed by printers and fax machines. I have nothing against Micosoft and Windows operating systems, yet they use a tremendous amount of power.
This did not really become apparent to me until I installed the initial version of Vista on a server/workstation. Sitting idle the computer would generate a temperature of 157 degrees out of the exhaust fan.
This was a setup to dual-boot both Xp or Vista. Living in the desert you also have to deal with cooling your office during the summertime. It quickly became apparent that something had change.
I replaced all my computers with various versions of Apple computers. From Mac Pro's to Mac Mini's along with converting all lighting to florescent lights. This combination reduced my summertime electric rates by about fifty dollars a month.
A Mac Mini uses just 110 watts maximum and idles at 12 watts, making it pretty economical and talk about quiet, you don't even know it's there. With the newest MacBook Pro laptops it's hard to see why anyone would even need a desktop computer!
While some will argue that the return on investment will take to long to be recovered, it has many other benefits by going green that cannot be measured directly.
Like, reducing green house gas emissions. Doesn't matter if you agree with global warming or not, simply doing our part to reduce it only makes sense. If each of us does a little it will make a huge impact, and by becoming more energy efficient.
This allows you to put more of your dollars where they count most, into marketing instead of generating heat! As I was making this transition, I especially looked into Solar Power as a way to power most of my home office equipment my server, the largest consumer in my office.
In my search, I uncovered a network marketing company in the startup phase that will bring solar energy to for millions of home owners. As a home business this is something I feel comfortable offering to my friends, neighbors and family members.
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