Join the Greening Keune Prorgram to begin offsetting your carbon emissions immediately (click here to join) and over time then work on reducing your energy consumption by using some or all of the following tips.

Manage / maintain appropriate air conditioner set point:
Correctly setting and maintaining air conditioner set points can provide an effective low cost opportunity to save energy. Typically the efficiency of an air conditioner increases by around 3% for every degree that the set point is closer to ambient air temperature.
Recommended summer and winter set points are:
• Summer - 24°C.
• Winter - 18°C.
It is recommended to educate staff on the advantages of correctly setting air conditioners and to implement an ongoing program to maintain air conditioner set points.

Buy energy efficient appliances:
When purchasing new appliances its good practise to buy the most energy efficient one available. Energy labels provide an effective means of assessing the efficiency of a product. Under the Australian government Energy Rating scheme it is mandatory that refrigerators, washing machines, clothes dryers and dishwashers carry the energy label when sold. The ‘stars’ on the energy label allow for an easy comparison between similar appliances. The energy labels also display the estimated annual electricity consumption of the appliance.
For more information and an interactive list of appliances and their energy ratings go to: www.energyrating.gov.au

Consider the position of air conditioners:
Split unit air conditioners consist of a supply unit that is typically mounted on an interior wall or ceiling and a heat exchanger. Heat exchangers are installed outside the building and used to either dump heat extracted from the building when in cooling mode or extract heat from the outside air to supply the interior space when in heating mode.
It is important to ensure that the heat exchange is installed in a shady location, or if this is not possible, build a shade around the unit. It is also important to ensure that there is adequate air flow around the unit.

Direct building air flow:
Hot air rises and cool air falls so if an air conditioning unit has louvers use them to direct the flow of air to the floor when in heating mode and direct the flow of air to the ceiling when cooling. This helps the air conditioner to more efficiently heat or cool the space.

Limit use of clothes dryer:
Significant amounts of energy are being saved by the site by allowing items to partially dry on a clothes line and only then use the dryer to finish the drying and soften the items. Obviously its preferable to allow items to hang dry.

Turn off unused equipment:
Leaving equipment either on or in standby mode during periods when a site is closed can represent a significant waste of energy. Installing digital timers on equipment such as printers, towel warmers, steamers, urns, coffee machines and TVs can help to save energy. Programmable digital 7 day timers are devices that plug in between the device(s) and the power point and can be programmed to switch equipment on and off at various times of the week.

Replace 60W incandescent globes with CFLs:
There is 1 x 60W incandescent light at the site in the bathroom. Incandescent lights are a highly inefficient form of lighting and produce significant amounts of unwanted heat. In February 2007, the Federal Government announced that by 2010, incandescent light bulbs would be banned.
A 15W CFL uses 75% less energy than a 60W incandescent while providing a superior light output.

Now for the technical bits....!

Replace halogen downlights:
Halogen downlights are generally considered to be an inefficient form of lighting producing high levels of unwanted heat.
Some replacement options are
Infra red (IR) halogen downlights
• Typically a 35W IR halogen downlight will provide the same light output at a standard 50W lamp.
• Lamp life is in the order of 5,000 hours.
• IR downlights operate on 12V and are a drop-in replacement for 12V halogens.
Compact fluorescent (CFL) downlights
• CFL downlights offer superior energy savings compared to IR halogen lamps.
• CFL downlights are available in dimmable lamps.
• Typical lamp life in the order of 10,000 to 15,000 hours.
• Installing 13W CFL downlights may result in a reduction in light levels of up to 10% and may alter the aesthetic quality of the light.
• CFL downlights typical operate on 240V. An electrician is typically required to install the lamp fittings.
Light emitting diode (LED) downlights
• LED downlights offer the greatest energy savings but come at the greatest capital cost.
• LED downlights are dimmable.
• Typical lamp life in the order of 50,000 hours.
• Installing 8W LED downlights may result in a reduction in light levels of up to 10% and may alter the aesthetic quality of the light.
• LED downlights operate on 12V and are a drop-in replacement for 12V halogens.

Fly Less! Drive Less!

If you would like to carry out an electricty audit on your business to see where the real changes can be made then please contact us at the office for more information.