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Inefficient standby modes on electrical appliances such as computers, copiers, and printers account for close to 5 percent of the energy consumed in many countries![1] Save energy in your school, church, or office by setting your copier to low-power modes whenever it’s not in use.

How to use your copier’s energy-saving features

Even if you’ve purchased an ENERGY STAR copier, its current power management settings may not be set to save you the most energy possible. Often they come pre-loaded with these power-saving features engaged, but it’s possible that they’ve been changed since the machine first arrived at your building.

Worried that using the power-saving modes on your copier will slow production? Don’t sweat it—if you’ve got an ENERGY STAR copier, it must recover within 30 seconds of being brought out of low-power mode.[2]

1. Follow the leader: ENERGY STAR regulates the default settings for their copiers and printers, setting a high standard for power-saving features on these machines.[3] If you follow their minimum default settings for low-power, off mode, and auto-off, you should be well on your way to significant energy savings. The settings you choose will depend slightly on your copier’s speed (the number of copies it can make per minute (cpm)), so check that before adjusting your machine’s power settings.
   • 0 < cpm ≤ 20: ENERGY STAR does not require that these machines enter low-power mode, but they should switch into off mode after 30 minutes of idle time.
   • 20 < cpm ≤ 44: Set these machines to enter low-power mode after 15 minutes and then off mode after 60 minutes of inactivity.
   • 44 < cpm: These machines should also go into low-power mode after 15 minutes and then shut off completely after 90 minutes of down time.
2. Duplex your way to energy savings: It takes 10 times more energy to place an image on a piece of paper than it does to create that sheet in the first place. Duplex copying requires less energy than single-sided copying, so setting your copier to default to duplex mode (a requirement for ENERGY STAR copiers with > 10 cpm capacity) will save you money in paper and energy costs.
3. When all else fails: If you don’t have a copier capable of entering low-power modes during idleness, appoint someone to shut it off at the end of the work day.

To measure the effectiveness of your copier's features, Xerox offers this sustainability calculator.

Using your copier’s power-saving features helps you go green because…

• Energy efficiency means fewer greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide.

Of all the energy used in the commercial sector, 7 percent is consumed to run office equipment. Of that total, 10 percent is used to run copiers, and 90 percent of that energy consumption occurs when the machines are not in use.[4] There are over 25 million small businesses in the US today, a group that consumes 48 percent of all commercial and industrial electricity.[5]

US Federal legislation requires that many government-owned electronic appliances (including copiers) operate in standby using no more than one watt of energy, which saves an estimated $300 million annually in energy costs.[1][6]

Glossary

• auto-off feature: The ability of a copier to shut down automatically after a specified period of time passes after the last copy was made. This mode requires the longest recovery time.
• low-power mode: Sometimes called sleep mode or the zero-energy standby mode (ZESM), this is lowest power state the copier can obtain without shutting off. The copier should be programmed to enter this mode within a specified period of time after the last copy was made. Recovery time is longer in this mode than in standby mode.
• off mode: The copier is plugged into an electrical outlet but has been powered down.
• recovery time: The amount of time needed for the copier to reach its ready-to-copy state.
• standby mode: The state when a copier is plugged in and ready to make copies, but not yet copying and not yet in energy-saving mode. There is no appreciable recovery time when in this mode.

External links

• ENERGY STAR - Copiers and fax machines
• US Department of Energy - How to Buy an Energy-Efficient Copier
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - Field Surveys of Office Equipment Operating Patterns
• ENERGY STAR - Sleeping and Saving With ENERGY STAR-Labeled Office Equipment