A STUDY OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION PROFILES OF THE TOP 10 MOST POPULAR PRINTER MODELS PROCURED WITHIN THE 7 REPRESENTATIVE BUILDINGS IN NUS CAMPUS

Abstract

This paper presents the total energy consumption of the 10 printer models that are found to be procured in highest quantities within the 7 representative buildings within the National University of Singapore (NUS) campus, as these groups of printers are believed to contribute significantly to the campus’ overall electricity bills. Energy metering devices including ACme meter and TelosB device were deployed for measuring the power consumption of printers in various power modes, including print, idle, sleep, and/or other applicable modes of operation depending on individual printer profile. The power consumption profile at each mode of operation of the 10 printer models were carefully studied and interpreted. Computations were also performed using the collected data, taking into account printer profiles, occupant behavior and various other practical assumptions. The subsequent results and their implications were further analyzed and discussed. This results revealed that there are some printer models which are significantly much more energy-efficient than the others where the latter were found to incur incredibly high annual electricity bills. Based on the research findings, viable strategies were proposed with the aim of reducing the overall electricity bills contributed by the campus’ printers. The implications of these proposed strategies were further discussed. The procurement of energy-efficient printer models is found to play an essential role. Finally, this study concluded that apart from energy consumption playing an essential role towards the running cost of a printer, there is a need to consider the actual cost of printer from the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) perspective.