An energy saving product is set to provide 1200 Monash University office workstations with annual energy savings of around 30 percent.
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. EcoSwitch is an energy saving device that cuts out standby power used by equipment and appliances.
A statistically representative mix of office staff workstations were selected that typically employed a Compaq desktop or a Dell notebook computer, a monitor and a standard CISCO IP Phone.
Post installation surveys were conducted after 2 months in which an 87 percent average utilisation rate was achieved. With this utilisation rate, based on 12c/kWhr, the estimated annual energy savings by installing 1200 EcoSwitches at the university is projected to be around 53MWhr, representing a return on investment in around 18 months.
“Even if we had a utilisation rate of only 50 percent we would see a return on investment in just 2.7 years, which we are more than happy with,” Raqibul Hassan, Office of Environmental Sustainability, Monash University, states.
Other outcomes from the pilot study were:
- an 87 percent utilisation of the EcoSwitch reduced total energy consumption measured against business as usual by around 30 percent
- 100 percent 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”, and
- the majority of staff used the EcoSwitch because they held a positive attitude towards its implementation and ability to save power.
