The Server Room

Annually, the single greatest consumer of electricity in your office is likely the server room. Between the power hungry server hardware, the UPS with its constant AC-to-DC conversion and the air conditioning running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365.25 days a year, all of that electricity use quickly adds up.

Hands-down, the easiest ways to save energy in your server room is to make sure your server room’s HVAC is doing its job as efficiently as possible. That means keeping the door closed at all times (and of course making sure there’s a door in the first place!) (many offices forget this part), keeping the HVAC system well-maintained, and cooling as small of a space as possible.

When buying buying new server hardware, Control Group can help you make the most efficient choices possible… this means anything from buying the right server for the right job (that eight-core print server might be overkill), to outfitting your new server with green-friendly hard drives which consume less power than standard drives. Control Group is an EPEAT Partner Reseller— EPEAT provides a “green” rating system for IT equipment based on a comprehensive criteria list.

The most efficient server room though, is no server room at all! As more and more businesses move aspects of their business to “the cloud,” they require less hardware onsite. Less hardware means lower electricity bills, which means money saved.

The Workstations

First off, if you still have any big bulky CRT monitors in your office, their time has most certainly come. They are big, ugly power hogs, and have no right to exist in 2009. No, not even on the intern’s computer in the janitorial closet. An LCD monitor will pay for itself in power consumption costs alone in under two years. When purchasing an LCD, consider looking into those which have LED-powered backlit displays. Not only do they consume even less power than LCDs using older CCFL technology, but they’re brighter, contain fewer harmful elements in their manufacturing process, and last longer to boot!

Pro-Tip: After you’ve replaced your CRT monitors, what do you do with them? Control Group works with Per Scholas, which is a local organization that recycles and re-uses computer equipment and works with New York City schools to provide students with their own computers as well as training.

Another great example of a small change that can make a big difference would be to make it office policy to power down computers at the end of the day (or at least the end of the week). For even more energy savings, consider flipping the switch on that power strip your computer is plugged into on top of powering down.

And for those employees who say that shutting down hurts their productivity, tell them to use Windows’ “hibernate” feature rather than the “shut down.” That will allow them to pick up right where they left off, with all of their AutoCAD windows and dozens of email drafts right where they left them.

The Office

One way Control Group saves energy around the office is that we have a “no personal printers” policy. We have three printers in the office: a black and white laser printer, and a color laser printer and a large format plotter to help us better support our architecture clients.

Not only does this centralized printing solution help save energy by avoiding having dozens of printers plugged in and on standby 24 hours a day, but it saves money on supplies—no more $18 ink cartridges—and saves us time from having to troubleshoot problematic printers (there’s a reason desktop printers are so cheap… they’re cheaply made and break constantly).

Perhaps most importantly, this printing setup also saves a lot of paper. Duplex printing (two-sided) is enabled on our laser printers and we have a dedicated “scrap paper” tray that we keep loaded with scrap paper, for those times when you need to print something but it doesn’t matter how it looks.

We may not be paperless yet, but we’re well on our way.

Finally, with all of the energy that your office is saving, consider moving over to wind power. Here in New York, ConEd offers a very competitive Wind Power for Business package. It’s 100% renewable energy and it’s easy to switch over.

While wind power may be 10-15% more expensive than coal, depending on how much you’ve managed to cut your overall power consumption, it’s entirely possible your company is still spending less on electricity than before even while using wind power. And on top of that, you can tell your customers you’re ahead of your competitors in reducing your company’s impact on the environment.

Early sketch of 174 Grand Street, by Loadingdock5

In the summer of 2008, we worked with Sam Bargetz of Loadingdock5 Architecture to redesign a client’s office. Our work required a creative approach to every aspect of the technology integration to achieve the sleek, modern appearance that the office design called for. Sam and his team were great to work with and we’ve kept in touch.

This year we were excited to learn that Loadingdock5 is attempting to build NYC’s first new building which fulfills the strict German “Passive House” standard. Passive Houses are airtight buildings that use heat from common household appliances and even your human body (!) for warmth. Every effort is made to conserve thermal energy, state-of-the-art heat exchangers are used to provide lots of fresh air.

We’ve been passing notes back and forth to Sam about the technology and are excited to follow his blog updates on the project.