A lot more people are choosing self-employment from a home office after the last round of unfavorable corporate downsizing. A home office (or telecommuting) refers to working at home using computers and other related appliances; the office often doubles as entertainment thanks to the equipment’s flexibility to play games, socialize online and so on.

With this new approach to work, electrical equipment such as computers, printers, modems, monitors, and lights work overtime, especially if there are kids or teenagers in the home. How will your electric bill fare?

Today’s electronics are thankfully more efficient. For example, an average flat-screen monitor uses about 25W of power whereas an older CRT unit may consume three times that amount. Bearing in mind that most people use a computer and its support systems for many hours, products that are more energy efficient are a much better choice. 

A fully-equipped home office contains not only the computer and monitor, but other related equipment like a printer, fax, lights, scanner and perhaps a photocopier. You might even want a 400W surround-sound system, so even energy-efficient systems can cause a major spike in power costs during a forty-hour work week.

Fortunately, the government has stepped in with the Energy Star program for all of North America, which functions similarly to EnerGuide and ENERGYguide labeling. The Energy Star program contains compliance guidelines and requirements for manufacturers of electronic equipment and data-processing products. Compliant products are energy efficient, using specialized software to save power.

For instance, a compliant monitor automatically switches to sleep mode (which uses less power) if there is no display change in a certain time period; laser printers, when idle, reduce their fuser temperature; a laptop computer is more energy efficient than a desktop model of the same capacity due to the limited battery capacity; bubble-jet printers give higher efficiency than their laser equivalents. 

There are always compromises to be made: a laser printer gives you lower toner costs per page than a bubble-jet using cartridges. Laptops cost more than a desktop but the former are more energy efficient. When you shop for equipment, look out for the Energy Star logo and other energy labels for a smarter choice.