Offices wasting £110 million in energy costs over Christmas

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Businesses could be wasting millions of pounds by heating empty offices or leaving computers on standby over the Christmas holidays, according to a business price comparison site.

So claims MakeItCheaper.com, which has undertaken a study to calculate the average office energy consumption when heating is left on and equipment on standby.

It has worked out that energy is consumed at a rate of 10 kilowatt hours (kWh) per employee per day. So, with 10 million office workers in the UK and the cost of 10 pence per unit, over £10 million could be wasted a day and £110 million over the 11 day break.

"You only have to feel the heat of a mobile phone charger to know that it's still sucking up electricity even when it's not attached to your phone. And leaving a PC monitor on all night wastes enough energy to microwave six cold turkey dinners," said Jonathan Elliott, managing director of Make It Cheaper, in a statement.

“With most office equipment, off doesn't actually mean off anymore. Someone needs to take responsibility to turn the thermostat down and go to each wall socket and flick the switch or, better still, just unplug everything you don¹t need. You¹d be crackers not to."

The wasted energy, amounting to 100 million kWh, could power two million homes according to the website.

As well as the cost implications, the report has shown that an extra 54,000 tonnes of CO2 will be released on each day of the holidays.

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