I brought in a Kill A Watt meter to check out power consumption around the office. Below are the results I got for typical equipment in standby (not start-up or operating) mode. An incadescent desk lamp bulb uses 40-60 watts when on.
Office photocopier 70 watts
Dell P4 computer CPU 41 watts
Laser printer 1 (laserjet 4000) 17 watts
Laser printer 2 (Nec SuperScript 870) 11 watts
Fax machine 8 watts
The following were essentially 0 watts:
Inkjet printer
Dell 17″ LCD monitor
Electric stapler
Electric pencil sharpener
Toaster oven
Microwave oven
I didn’t measure the office fridge since it comes on and off unpredictably.
So the photocopiers and CPUs are the biggest power hogs. I’ve set a policy in my office that the photocopier gets turned off with the hard switch at the end of everyday. I am assuming that everyone already turns off their computer–but I guess I’d better check on that assumption. Perhaps we can put timer power strips under the laser printers or just shut them off at night also.