Posted by: Yes Solar Cape (Cape Town, South Africa) – 18 August 2010

By: Philip Hampton, chief technology officer at Powermode

With the price of utility power rising significantly in South Africa over the next three years, most organisations have stepped up their efforts to save energy and reduce costs.

Between 8 and 10% of all servers deployed are unused.

Minimising energy usage also has an environmental impact. In today’s business climate having a ‘green strategy’ in place makes good business sense because in a typical office building, lighting, heating and cooling represent about 65% of total energy consumption.

The first step to take before launching an active energy efficiency campaign is to understand the dynamics of your company’s current energy consumption by taking regular meter readings.

Phase one should entail the elimination of energy wastage by the obvious methods of replacing non-energy efficient light bulbs, minimising heating and cooling in areas not permanently occupied by staff and isolating these areas from those that require climate control.

Industry experts report that, in winter, one degree dropped in the ambient office or workspace temperature can result in up to a 10% saving in heating costs in a medium sized company. The converse applies in summer.

Hot water geysers are massive consumers of energy, so their replacement by solar powered systems should be a priority. In the mean time, thermostats should be set to 60 deg C. Continue reading Green strategy makes good business sense