Leaving your computer on a screensaver might add a little aesthetic in your computer/laptop, but do you know what impact will it give to earth?

Electricity production is one of main human causes of global climate change. It happens as burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas can release more CO2 and later, it will make the earth’s temperature rising. According to Statista, energy consumption always increases due to technology and or ordinary activities such as burning rubbish or cigarettes. The energy consumption in Asia Pasific alone has increased up to 5,743.6 consumption in million metric tons of oil equivalent. This condition is worsened as new buildings and offices are also increasing.

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What about your office, then? How much energy do you use each day?

If you are planning to enjoy the comfort of having electricity while working without contributing to global warming or simply paying more bills, read on the following 7 energy myths and facts taken from SEDAC.

Myth #1 Leaving fluorescent lights on in more efficient than turning them off

FACT : There is surge of energy use when a fluorescent is first turned in. Yet, it only lasts about 1/10 of a second and is equivalent to about 5 seconds greater than the initial spike in energy consumption required to power a fluorescent lamp. Turning off the lights when you get out of the room for several minutes can help save energy. Installing occupancy sensors can help automatically turn off the lights in a room that has been unoccupied for a specified amount of time.

Myth #2 Computers should remain on to save energy

FACT : A small spike in initial energy consumption is greatly outweighed by the energy required to operate the computer for even a short amount of time. You should enable your computer with power management options, like hibernate or standby. There can be hesitation to implement certain type of computer power management. Some companies leave CPUs on during the evening for security and antivirus updates. It might be possible to schedule updates at startup, during lunch, or specified times.

Myth #3 Screensavers reduce energy consumption

FACT : Screensavers are designed to prevent damage to CRT and plasma monitors. They do NOT save energy and their usage can actually result in increasing energy consumption by disabling power management settings. Employing monitor power management can result in lower energy costs and project older monitor.

Myth #4 When an appliance is off, it does not use any energy  

FACT : Many devices actually consume energy when off. Television, charges clocks, and other devices might have ‘vampire’ or ‘phantom’ loads as it requires standby power when the device is off. Though many of the standby power for individual devices can be small, it adds up to about 5 percent electricity usage. Plugging devices into power strips and actually turning off will reduce your energy consumption. Some power strips are enabled with occupancy sensors that will turn them off when there is no activity in the area.

Myth #5 Setting a thermostat to high/low temperatures will heat/cool the room quickly

FACT : Setting your thermostat to heat to 90°F instead of 70° F will not make the room warmer any faster. The same goes for cooling a room. Leaving your thermostats at these extreme temperatures will not make you comfortable quicker, and will result in higher energy bills if you forget to return it to normal setting.

Myth #6 Programmable thermostats do not save energy

FACT : Programmable thermostats enable you to change the temperature when a building is unoccupied. In winter, turning down your thermostat during unoccupied or inactive periods will result in less energy consumption. The same goes to turning up your temperature during summer. A rule of thumb is 1 percent reduction in your heating/cooling bill for each degree you turn down/up your thermostat for eight hours.

If your building has a simple HVAC system and is unoccupied nights and weekends, turning thermostat down 8°F will reduce your heating cost by 16 percent. However, this does not apply to complex system which involve simulations use of heating and cooling.

Myth #7 Electric heating is more efficient than natural gas

FACT : Even though electric resistant heaters are considered to have ‘100 percent efficiency’, they are less efficient than natural gas fired heaters when you consider total energy. And even though almost all electricity is itself in effective, it is generally less expensive and energy intensive to heat with natural gas than electricity.

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