Energy Smart Homes - Office Equipment

Search all WA Government Sites

Print this page

If all offices and homes in Australia enabled ENERGY STAR on their office equipment, businesses and home users would save around $200 million in energy costs and the greenhouse gas emission savings would be equivalent to taking 500,000 cars off the road.

ENERGY STAR is an international standard for energy efficient electrical equipment. Once your computer, printer, fax or photocopier complies with the ENERGY STAR standard, it will automatically switch itself into a power-saving 'sleep' mode after a certain amount of idle time. For example, the monitor on your computer will go dark and other components (such as the hard disk and main processor) will reduce the amount of power they're using by about two thirds in 'sleep' mode. The time it takes for the machine to 'go to sleep' can easily be set-up to suit the way you work.

As soon as you need to use the computer again, simply press a key or move the mouse and the computer 'wakes' up, with all your programs and documents exactly as you left them.

While most office equipment is now ENERGY STAR compliant, only a small number of machines have actually been enabled. To find out how to enable ENERGY STAR on your computer, visit the ENERGY STAR web site. Information is also available in the ENERGY STAR Office Equipment, (PDF 379 KB) brochure.

Apart from enabling ENERGY STAR on your equipment, there are other ways to reduce energy consumption in the office. This Green Office Guide, (PDF 629 KB) will help you buy and use environmentally friendly office equipment.

Image of Energy Star label

To access Adobe Acrobat Reader for the PDFs provided on this site: www.adobe.com.au