Johannesburg, 12 Oct 2007
At a time when most South Africans are facing rolling blackouts and customers are being asked to reduce their consumption, as Eskom battles to meet capacity, Bytes Document Solutions has moved to assure its customers that their Xerox equipment is playing its part to minimise electricity consumption.
"Xerox has invested millions of dollars to ensure its products use the least possible electricity," says Keith Weaver, divisional manager of technical services at Bytes Document Solutions, sole distributor of Xerox in 24 sub-Saharan countries.
"Office products like printers, copiers, and multifunction systems are active only 10% of the time," says Weaver. "The rest of the time, they are in a standby or `sleep` mode. The `deeper` the sleep, the less power they use, but the longer it takes before they are ready to print again.
"Xerox developed technology that allows its office equipment to wake up using 75% less energy than it did previously, and faster than any comparable machine."
In addition, over the past two years, Xerox scientists and engineers have developed products that use significantly less energy. The payoff: More than half of the company`s office and production product offerings meet the US Environmental Protection Agency`s rigorous new Energy Star requirements that went into effect on 1 April 2007.
Previously, the Energy Star criteria for office copiers, printers and multifunction systems measured power consumed in standby and low-power modes. The new standard asks a different question: How much energy would the device use during a typical week? It measures the energy consumed if the system mimics the tempo of a normal office, running a sample job mix with downtime for lunch, overnight and on weekends.
The result is a typical electricity consumption (TEC) figure that must meet the EPA`s tough new requirements in order for a product to achieve Energy Star status. Weaver notes: "One example of the company`s success is the WorkCentre 4150, which prints at 45 pages per minute. It`s a black-and-white, desktop multifunction system for small and medium-sized businesses, and it uses 11.9 kilowatt-hours per week of electricity. That`s roughly half the energy consumption of a comparable 45ppm multifunction system of three years ago.
"As an organisation, Xerox is totally committed to reducing its and its customers` impact on the environment, and reducing electricity consumption is key here. All Xerox customers can use their office equipment today and into the future with full confidence that they are contributing to the national effort to save electricity."
* For queries or further information, contact 0800 117 843.
Share