Auxliary motors and lighting consumer tips
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Auxiliary equipment and motors
General
- Turn off your office equipment when not in use. This includes coffee pots, radios, desk lamps, light tables and similar appliances as well as computers, printers and copiers.
- Whenever possible, don't use large equipment during the peak hours of 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- Always choose ENERGY STAR® products whenever possible.
- Set energy-saving features on all your office equipment to put them into sleep mode when not in use.
- Encourage employees to use municipal transit.
- Keep your equipment properly maintained.
- Use excess process heat to augment space heating in colder months.
Computers
- Turn on peripherals only when needed.
- Choose settings that automatically switch the computer monitor into sleep or "power-down" mode when it hasn't been worked on for a preset amount of time. Shorten the delay time before your monitor automatically goes into sleep mode.
- Use "Uninterruptible Power Supplies," which combine surge protectors and battery packs to protect both computers and data during a power outage.
- To be as energy efficient as possible, only buy office equipment that displays the ENERGY STAR® logo.
- Consider having employees use lap top computers since they use up to 90 per cent less energy than a standard computer.
- Choose flat-panel computer monitors rather than a regular cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors, which use considerably more electricity.
Printers and copiers
- Purchase proper sized office equipment for your business needs.
- Use ink-jet printers, if practical, instead of laser printers, which use 09 per cent more energy.
Paper
- Implement paper-reducing strategies such as double-sided printing and reusing paper.
- Use e-mail instead of sending memos and faxing documents.
- Use two-sided copying whenever possible.
- Use post-consumer recycled paper stock.
Food services equipment
- Fully load cooking and cooling equipment to use energy efficiently. However, be careful not to overload beyond the recommended capacity.
- Keep pots covered to reduce heat loss.
- Choose the right size equipment for the job.
- Preheat cooking equipment at the manufacturer's recommended setting.
- Keep evaporator coils clean and free of ice build-up with regular maintenance. Check levels of oil and refrigerant.
- Turn off backup equipment during low production periods.
- Use insulated night covers on display cases.
- Install automatic door-closers and strip curtains on walk-in freezers or coolers.
- Make sure oven and cooler doors fit tightly by adjusting door latches, and replacing worn gaskets.
- Buy insulated cooking equipment when possible to confine the heat to the food and not the kitchen.
- Replace broilers with more energy efficient smooth or grooved griddles.
- Perform scheduled maintenance on units.
- Keep evaporator coils clean and free of ice build-up.
- Don’t block air circulation grills.
- Choose the right operating temperatures for both cooking and cooling equipment.
- Check temperature levels with an accurate thermometer.
- Use recommended refrigeration levels. Frozen food should be kept at -22°C, ice cream at -26°C, delicatessen at 2°C and beer, soft drinks: 4°C.
- Choose energy efficient equipment such as infrared fryers, convection ovens, including steamer models, microwave ovens when upgrading your kitchen. Also install specialized equipment designed to cook a particular food very efficiently and energy-saving controls that automatically time the cooking of foods.
Motors
- Match the motor to the job; operate motors near their rated load.
- Replace standard efficiency motors with premium efficiency motors.
- Use adjustable speed motors when continuous full power is not necessary.
- Program motors that are intermittently used but continuously on to power down after a specific period of inactivity.
- Perform regular cleaning and maintenance on your motors. Tighten belts and pulleys to prevent slippage, lubricate motors and drives regularly to reduce friction, and replace worn bearings.
Agricultural fuel efficiency
- Match gearing and engine speed for optimum efficiency.
- Match tractors to the purpose; too small or too large is inefficient.
- Perform maintenance and keep tires inflated to manufacturer's recommendations.
Agricultural irrigation
- Match pump size to irrigation system.
- Maintain motors, pumps, nozzles, impellers and pipes.
- Fix leaks as soon as possible.
- By automatically adjusting the speed, energy saving can be realized.
Lighting
- Turn lights off when not in use.
- Use task lighting instead of ceiling fixtures to provide light only where it is needed, when it is needed.
- Replace incandescent light bulbs with more efficient compact fluorescent lights. Because incandescent lights create heat, replacing them with cooler fluorescent lights will also cut down on air conditioning expense.
- Replace old fluorescent fixtures such as T12 lights which use magnetic ballasts with newer, more efficient models such as T8 lights which use electronic ballasts.
- Use dimmer switches with incandescent bulbs to provide only the amount of light needed.
- Use one large light instead of two smaller lights (one 100-watt bulb instead of two 60-watt bulbs).
- Replace incandescent or fluorescent exit signs with LED exit signs.
- Clean light bulbs, glass shades, lenses and reflectors regularly to maximize the efficiency of your lights.
- Use reflectors to increase the effectiveness of lighting.
- Install occupancy sensors or timers to provide light only when it is needed.
- Wire small or less frequently used areas, such as store rooms or washrooms with their own circuits and switches.
- Remove unneeded light bulbs in areas near windows or where minimal light is needed. Fluorescent bulbs should always be removed in pairs. In four-tube fixtures, remove either the outer pair or the inner pair.
- If all the tubes are removed from one fluorescent fixture, disconnect the ballast as well because, if switched on, it will continue to use electricity even if the sockets are empty.
- Avoid using pot lights which trap both light and heat, or use ellipsoidal reflector lamps which direct more light into the room.
- Decorate with LED lights during the holiday season or special events.
- Rewire restroom fans to operate with the lights.
- Install separate switches for smaller areas. This way only lighting that’s needed is turned on.
- Use “half lighting” (every other fixture) in a store when performing tasks during non-shopping hours.
- Use an energy management system to perform many of these tasks automatically.
 
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