Energy-Efficient Tips for a Home Office

Want to make your home office more energy efficient? Sure you do! It will have a positive impact on the environment while also saving you money in utility expenses. Regardless of how your office design is currently designed, you can make it more energy-efficient by following these tips.

Replace Incandescent Bulbs

Replacing incandescent light bulbs will create a more energy-efficient home office. Incandescent bulbs are characterized by the use of a wire filament that, when exposed to electricity, heats up. While they can illuminate your home office, they consume a lot of energy.

For a more energy-efficient home office, consider using light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs instead of incandescent. Research shows that the average household saves $225 per year by switching to LED bulbs.

Use Thermal Window Curtains

Another energy-efficient tip is to use thermal window curtains. Thermal window curtains, of course, are designed specifically to block thermal energy (heat). During the summer, you can pull the thermal window curtains closed so that they minimize heat absorption.

Your home office will inevitably absorb some thermal heat through the windows. When it's sunny outside, heat will travel through the windows while entering your home office. Thermal window curtains will protect your home office from this heat. As a result, you won't have to spend as much energy to keep your home office cool with air conditioning.

Connect Devices to a Power Strip

You can save energy by connecting devices to a power strip. A power strip is a device that features multiple outlets. You can connect multiple devices to a single power strip. You can then connect the power strip to a wall outlet.

A power strip alone won't necessarily save you energy. Rather, it will allow you to turn off your devices at the end of the day. You can flip the power strip to the "off" position so that the connected devices no longer consume energy.

Turn Down Your Monitor

Assuming you have a computer monitor in your home office, making some small adjustments to it can have a big impact on your energy usage. All computer monitors consume energy. Whether you have a liquid-crystal display (LCD) or organic light-emitting diode (OLED) computer monitor, it will consume energy. There are adjustments you can make, however, to conserve energy.

Lowering the brightness, for instance, will conserve energy. By lowering the brightness, your computer monitor won't have to produce as much light. You can also set your computer monitor to turn off automatically after a short period of idling. If it's been longer than five minutes since you last used your computer, you may want to set your monitor to turn off.