Improve the overall efficiency of your business by implementing these easy to do methods.

This Article was written by CDW Corporation’s Small Business Team. Stay tuned for more Money saving tips by Subscribing to our RSS feed.

1. Be sure to size uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) appropriately to maximize power savings. With a UPS that is too small, the load can exceed the capabilities of the UPS, while a UPS that is too big can be a money-drain. If you have more UPS capacity than you need and currently use single-phase power, look into three-phase, which is more efficient.

2. To save power, have employees turn off their monitors, task lights, etc. on nights and weekends, while leaving the CPU running. To make it easier, use intelligent power strips that turn off peripheral equipment automatically. The price points on intelligent power strips are going down, while availability is going up. Also, implementing a policy at organizations for peripheral usage could alleviate headaches.

3. Replace traditional fluorescent lighting with new light emitting diode (LED) lights. Because LED lights don’t emit heat, they use just one-tenth of the power draw and equate to a twenty percent longer life cycle. Additionally, LED price points are starting to decline and the cost savings over the long-term are dramatic.

4. Enabling the sleep mode on computers will save energy when the user is idle. If IT departments need to conduct nightly updates, they can simply send a wake-up signal to the device at the appropriate time and then let it go back to ‘sleep’ when the maintenance is finished.

5. Going green can do wonders for your pocket book. When purchasing hardware, only buy products that are ENERGY STAR compliant. When a product has performed to U.S. government energy efficiency standards, it earns the ENERGY STAR distinction. ENERGY STAR compliant hardware may cost more initially, but we all know that energy efficiency saves on total cost of ownership (TCO).

6. Implement motion-sensing lighting in your office. This technology shuts the lights off when it senses no one is in the room. Motion-sensing lights can potentially save companies hundreds of dollars per year. To top it off, use compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) for further energy efficiency and savings.

Related

• Green IT: 10 resources that will help make your IT infrastructure Greener
• Upgrading: 7 Money Saving Secrets some IT Vendors don’t want you to know