Building Sustainability Awarded Contract for Use of Intelligent Power Strips to Reduce Desktop Energy Use at DECC

Building Sustainability was awarded a one year pilot to install its Footprint Intelligent Power Strips at DECC. This was part of the Energy Efficient Whitehall competition jointly funded by DECC and the Technology Strategy Board to trial innovative energy-efficient technology in selected government departments.

The Footprint intelligent power strips are a collaboration between Building Sustainability Ltd and CMD, specialists in office power and cable management. The strips contain smart meters and are being used to monitor energy use from PCs, docking stations, monitors and printers attached to them in real time, as well as control the supply of energy to equipment, especially ‘out of hours’. The aim is to reduced wasted energy as a result of equipment left on when not in use. The control of energy use is achieved by the ability to set switch-off thresholds when the energy use drops below a certain level, or at certain times. Energy data is presented on the graphical dashboards accessible via the Internet and digital signage.

60 power strips were installed in February 2011 in two test areas and a third control area. The first information gathering phase focussed on monitoring energy use patterns of desktop and other equipment. This highlighted wasted energy use particularly out of hours i.e. weekends and evenings:

• Night and weekend use is as much as a third of week day use.
• The area where traditional PCs and monitors are used compared to low energy laptops and docking stations used twice and much energy as other areas.
• Overnight printer energy use varies from 60 Wh to 160 Wh despite the use of timers.

In September 2011 the pilot moved to the second control phase to implement energy-saving settings. The information gained in the first phase was used to decide what switch-off criteria would be appropriate in two pilot test areas. This phase ran from 15 September to 15 December 2011.

In one of the control areas, PC use was unaffected but other equipment such as monitors were turned off automatically when the PC was not in use. Additionally, one of the printers was scheduled to turn off between the hours of 9pm and 7am during week nights and from 9pm Friday night to 7am Monday morning each weekend.

In the other control area, the power strips were scheduled to switch off all equipment at 9pm and switch them back on at 7am, and also be switched off at weekends. This also applied to the printers in this area.

Communication with users of the control areas was provided through desk notices, posters, intranet article, staff email notice and briefing for staff in the control areas.

The data from this second control phase is being used to measure the impact of the power strips in reducing energy use at DECC. A report is being prepared by Building Sustainability and will be presented to DECC. Feedback will also be sought from users involved in the pilot through a questionnaire and debriefing session.

For more information on the intelligent power strips email info@buildingsustainability.net

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