5 easy ways to reduce your business energy bill by up to 20%!
As high energy costs bite deep into budgets, there is plenty of advice available for businesses to help them reduce their energy bills. With simple ideas such as replacing light bulbs with LEDs, to investing in a smart meter to help you be more energy aware, businesses want to take control of their energy usage.
All of us should be thinking about how to reduce our energy consumption. Not only can we reduce our energy bills, but we can also reduce our carbon footprint helping to achieve sustainability goals. The risk of energy shortages as a result of geo-political threats further adds to the need to reduce usage in order to safeguard supplies.
The environmental impact associated with product usage
An analysis of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the entire Sharp value chain identified that more than 80% of emissions are associated with the use of sold products. It is precisely because Sharp makes products that use electricity that we have a responsibility to reduce the environmental impact resulting from this energy use.
Here we highlight some hints and tips to help you reduce your energy usage associated with Sharp/NEC visual technology. Even just the smallest reduction adds up over time, especially across large networks of displays, so we hope that these ideas will help you reduce both your energy bills and your impact on the environment.
VIEW: Find out how Sharp/NEC prioritises Quality, Service and Sustainability in helping its customers achieve their sustainability goals.
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Five easy ways to reduce power consumption
Sharp/NEC products feature energy-saving tools such as automatic timers and smart sensors which we recommend our customers use. Different product groups will offer different functionality, but all with the aim of reducing power consumption, lengthening the life cycle, and keeping control over operating costs. Not all our tips are so obvious however, so look out for some perhaps lesser known ideas!
1. Take advantage of energy-saving functions
Sharp/NEC desktop monitors, large format displays and projectors are shipped from the factory in an energy-saving preset. Operating at approx. 70% of its full performance capability, this preset is designed to optimise energy consumption and support greater longevity. We recommend maintaining this setting and not reverting to maximum brightness settings.
Intelligent Power Management features and Auto-standby Mode ensure the device is only switched on when a source is connected, and inbuilt scheduling functionality avoids unnecessary operating time by automatically powering down at a pre-set time.
These tools are available, and we encourage our customers to make full use of them as they audit and action energy reduction.
By maintaining the energy-saving preset, on a network of 100 displays, users can save up to £13,701 on their annual energy bill! *
*Based on the popular 65” meeting room display, the MultiSync® M651, assuming 8 hours per day operation and calculated using the 2023 business electricity unit price of 31.3p per kWh.
2. Activate sensor technology
Motion sensors, such as the NEC Human Presence Sensor, detect movement around the device to trigger an action. Built into our desktop monitors and an optional feature on our large format displays, when the user, or passer-by, is detected within the sensor area, the display automatically powers up to increase the brightness. By minimising power usage when there’s no one in the vicinity, significant energy savings can be made.
Businesses can save over 30% of their CO2 consumption by using this feature!
Similarly, brightness sensors adapt the display brightness to the ambient light conditions ensuring eye pleasing readability of content and optimised power usage.
3. Shut down when not in use
Almost all electrical appliances consume energy even when in standby mode. Both LED and LCD technologies are mature enough to be shut down every day thus reducing unnecessary power usage. It is important however to be mindful of the inrush current when an LED device is switched on which can overload components. By regulating the switch-on process with the use of a switch-on controller, individual LED modules will start up sequentially to mitigate power spikes. This investment is small compared to running the overall system 24/7 unnecessarily.
By powering down when not in use rather than leaving in standby mode, on a network of 100 displays, users can save a small but satisfying £91 on their annual energy bill. *
*Based on the popular 65” meeting room display, the MultiSync® M651, assuming non-operational 16 hours per day and calculated using the 2023 business electricity unit price of 31.3p per kWh.
4. Choose your content wisely
Even if a complete shutdown is not possible, running your LED device without content could also reduce the energy draw. The influence of the content on the energy balance is often underestimated. By using a black background instead of a bright background for your LED display, the power consumption drops by up to 50 percent. Furthermore, blue LEDs consume the least amount of power so content using predominantly blue rather than red or green is preferable.
You could reduce your energy consumption by up to 50%!
5. Remote management and control
Digital signage screens, media players and other devices should be continuously monitored and actively controlled. A software solution for remote control is one of the most efficient ways to operate a display network. With the NEC NaViSet Administrator 2 software, for example, automated switch-on and switch-off times can be defined, minimising unnecessary power usage when devices are not in use. NaViSet can be used to monitor and report on usage and power saving functions across all connected devices helping organisations to quantify their carbon footprint.
Discover many other benefits of NaViset Administrator 2
Use our Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculators to estimate and compare typical running costs of Sharp/NEC Projectors, Desktop Monitors and Large Format Displays.
For information about Sharp/NEC’s Green Signage, download the Whitepaper