| Abstract | Office equipment including personal computer (PC) systems, printers, copiers, and facsimile machines are responsible for the greatest share in the growth of energy consumption in commercial buildings in the United States, i.e. they currently account for over 5% of commercial electricity consumption and are expected to rise to 10% by the year 2000. In Thailand, these equipment are expected to grow in the same direction as the United States. This is the first study undertaken to identify energy use and energy saving potential of office equipment in Thailand. Energy audits of office equipment were conducted at Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration and Production building, Petroleum Authority of Thailand's head office, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, and Asian Institute of Technology. The load patterns of sample office equipment were monitored to derive the actual time spent in active, standby, suspend and off modes. These data were combined with estimated diversity factors and power measurements in each mode to extrapolate the annual energy consumption and energy saving potential of office equipment. Results show that the idle losses of these equipment are very high; 53% for PC system, 94% for copier, 96% for dot/inkjet printers, 98% for laser printer, and 98% for fax machine. Although the annual energy consumption of office equipment represents only 2.2-5.6% of total energy consumption of the buildings audited, it is estimated that up to a quarter of the annual energy consumption of office equipment can be easily saved without any extra costs. On a national scale, if one assumes that all the commercial buildings have similar patterns of office equipment use as in the buildings surveyed, one can expect annual energy consumption and commercial peak demand savings of the order of 700 GWh and 200 MW respectively by the year 2005. The total harmonic distortion (THD) due to office equipment is very high at 62-85% of Irms whereas power factor of these equipment is relatively low, ranging from 0.49 to 0.77. To achieve the projected energy saving potential in reality, energy conservation policy makers and energy conservation implementing agencies would be required to launch various activities such as consumer education, market pull, and setting up standards, testing and labeling facilities. |