Sustainability at Home

At the last count it’s been 20 months since I started working from home. It’s had its ups and downs, but on reflection I’m enjoying #workingfromhome and love the opportunity to head into the office to catch-up with people I haven’t seen for quite a while and engage in office banter.

Over the summer I was lucky to spend 6 weeks off on sabbatical. No long haul travel plans, but I did spend time clearing out old junk, and importantly recycling/free cycling/selling as much as I possibly could.

Earlier in the year I wrote a blog post about Redgate donating IT equipment to local schools, recycling and sustainability in one fell swoop. Computer equipment getting a new lease of life, and helping the education of the next generation of IT experts.

Over the past few months, the rise in fuel and energy costs has become ever more noticeable, reading the meter is a stark reminder of how much more energy we’re using as a family. A simple roll call of devices for starters showed that just I was leaving all my work equipment on standby overnight, and on standby over the weekend. Oops!

I’ve installed wifi smart plugs which means I can make sure devices are on only for the days and time I need them on. Exploring beyond my work set-up it was clear we leave a lot of devices on stand-by, the back of the TV being the biggest villain here.

Looking upwards I also realised that our light bulbs which were energy efficient 5 years ago have been surpassed by lower wattage bulbs that give off better light. Those got an update too. Gone are the ugly white fluorescent energy bulbs and in are the LED vintage candle units! More importantly, was the realisation that our dining room (my new office) light fitting has 5 bulbs, 5 x 12W , is the equivalent of an old 60W bulb. Doh! That’s been halved with the new bulbs and the light is warmer and gentler on the eyes.

I know people will scoff and talk about pay back times, but I’m genuinely hoping we see a reduction in our energy bills in the long term. The short term outlay will be worth it if we just waste less electricity. Lets face it, keeping a monitor on standby is not the best use of energy.

My questions to you are;

• Does your company have old IT equipment that could be donated and fine a new lease of life at a local school?
• What are you doing to reduce your domestic energy use following a shift in working patterns?