Standby power energy savings

Monash University Clayton Campus in Victoria recently conducted a two-month pilot study to determine the financial benefits of installing the Australian designed EcoSwitch throughout the university’s office workstations. The EcoSwitch is an energy-saving device that cuts out standby power used by equipment and appliances, plugging in between a power point and power board.

A statistically representative mix of office staff workstations was selected for the pilot that typically employed a desktop or notebook computer, a monitor and a standard IP phone.

Post installation surveys were conducted after two months in which an 87% average utilisation rate was achieved.  With this utilisation rate, based on 12c/kWh, the estimated annual energy savings by installing 1200 EcoSwitches at the university is projected to be around 53 MWh, representing a return on investment in around 18 months.

“Even if we had a utilisation rate of only 50% we would see a return on investment in just 2.7 years, which we are more than happy with,” said Raqibul Hassan, Office of Environmental Sustainability, Monash University.

“Businesses are becoming increasingly aware that reducing standby power will reduce electricity bills and have less impact on the environment.  Upcoming price hikes are likely to put a serious dent in a lot of budgets, so it makes sense to start reducing electricity use now. Using the EcoSwitch is an easy and inexpensive way to do this,” said inventor and Carbon Reduction Industries Managing Director Rod Sheppard. 

Other outcomes from the pilot study were: an 87% utilisation of the EcoSwitch reduced total energy consumption measured against BAU (business as usual) by around 30%; 100% of the study respondents were using the product at least “most days”; feedback responses from the study group included “love it”, “easy”, “simple” and “want to use some at home”; the majority of staff used the EcoSwitch because they held a positive attitude towards its implementation and ability to save power.