Tag: working from home

How to make your home office more energy efficient

How to make your home office more energy efficient

There are lots of benefits to working from home. During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people found themselves creating makeshift home offices. Now, many companies are making remote and hybrid working the norm for their employees. If you’re one of these people, then it’s time to level up your home office.

There’s no shortage of information on how to design and decorate your home office; however, you should also think about making it as energy efficient as possible. After all, you’ll be spending a lot of time in it and an inefficient space is bad for the environment and your utility bills. You don’t want to be wasting all of that money you’re saving on not commuting.

illustration of a home office with sofa, shelves and picture

Insulation

If your home office isn’t well insulated, then you’re just going to be spending money trying to heat it up or cool it down. So start with a solid foundation and ensure that your windows are draft-free and have no gaps.

Have your walls and ceiling lined with Celotex insulation board to keep precious heat from escaping your home.

illustration of a warm home office

Watch the thermostat

In general, a temperature of between 18-21ºC is optimum for adults. If you have any medical conditions or are one of those people who’s always cold, then it could be tempting to turn up the heating.

While every once and a while won’t make much difference; if you’re working from home every day, the heating costs are soon going to add up.

Rather than immediately reaching for the heating controls, try putting on an extra layer of clothing or something warm on your feet.

illustration of working on a computer at night

Use energy-efficient lighting

If you work late, or throughout the winter months, you’ll have lights on for long periods. Replace your bulbs with more energy-efficient ones to reduce the amount of electricity you’re using – and your bills. Energy-efficient bulbs cost more to buy, but they last a lot longer and are better value for money in the longer term.

Illustration of a home office

Switch everything off

It seems that everything is designed to be left on standby these days. Some items don’t even have an off button. While standby is preferable to leaving everything switched on, it still uses a significant amount of electricity if things are switched on 24/7.

At the end of your workday, switch off all of your electronic devices. To make this easier for yourself, attach them all to smart plugs so that you can control them from your phone or smart speaker. You can even set a timer for all of the plugs to switch off at a particular time, just in case you forget.

Illustration of a home office desk with coding books

Final thoughts

Working from home can bring with it a lot of benefits in terms of the types of jobs you can apply for, work-life balance and saving money. But it does mean that you’ll be using much more energy at home, which could have a huge impact on your energy bills. So it makes sense to make your home office as energy-efficient as possible.

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Looking to make your home office environmentally friendly? Here are few easy tips

Looking to make your home office environmentally friendly? Here are few easy tips

While a lot of things are getting back to something resembling normality out there, many of us know that we’ll be working from home for a while longer yet. Over the last year or so we’ve all made a big effort to make sure we have a home office set-up that actually works for us. We’ve left the kitchen table behind and invested in a desk chair that won’t ruin our back. But we’re also always looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint, which means that our home office should be more than efficient; it should be green. Here are three ideas to help you create an environmentally friendly home work space.

Home office with natural light

Make sure you’re making the most of natural light

This point is a lot easier in the summer as we start to enjoy longer, brighter days, but you should aim to be working in a well-lit space all year round. Sunlight is not only a great booster for your mental health, but it will also cut down on the amount of electricity you’re using. So, if you’ve squirrelled yourself away in a quiet spare room that sits in darkness most of the day, think about relocating to somewhere brighter. Your mood and your energy bills will thank you.

Energy-efficient light bulbs

Use energy-efficient light bulbs

Of course, using natural lighting isn’t always an option and we are all familiar with those long evenings spent trying to complete a project ahead of a deadline. When you’re burning the midnight oil, make sure to use energy-efficient light bulbs. These days, it’s easier than ever to make the environmentally friendly choice, and LED bulbs are significantly kinder on the climate and your energy bill. These LED bulbs with e27 socket are far more energy efficient than their incandescent or halogen counterparts, and there are dimmable options available too. Any-Lamp has an amazing range of bulbs to suit your lighting needs.

Recycling plastics

Don’t forget to recycle

As we went wild on the online shopping over the last year, it has been easier than ever to let some of our good environmental habits slide. However, it’s easy enough to turn that car around, and it starts with getting some good habits going. Investing in separate waste bins for recyclable and non-recyclable goods is a classic first step, but what about repurposing and reusing? Think twice before throwing anything away and ask yourself if your rubbish could have a second life.

Illuminated standby button

Power down properly

When you’re rushed off your feet, it’s easy to forget simple actions that make a big difference. For example, switching your office appliances off at the wall at the end of the day has a real impact on the amount of energy they use. However, there are a couple of other tricks of which you may not be aware. If you have a screensaver on your computer, switch it off and ensure that your machine is going to hibernation mode. Newer appliances should come with energy-saving modes so make sure that you use them. These steps may seem small, but their impact is anything but.

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How to create the best work-from-home space in a studio apartment

How to create the best work-from-home space in a studio apartment

When you have a studio apartment, space is at a premium. If you’re working from home, you have to be extra intelligent and creative when creating your workspace in a studio apartment. That’s okay, you’re in luck! We’re going to help you do just that in this post. Are you ready to optimise your studio apartment for an amazing, cost-effective, efficient workspace? Excellent, let’s begin!

Studio apartment

Analyse your studio apartment

The first step when thinking about creating a stunning workspace in a studio apartment is to get realistic about your space. You need to figure out the square footage, twohe layout of your apartment, and visualise possibilities. If your studio apartment is a large square, you want to take that into account. If it’s a longer rectangle, take that into consideration as well. You need to clearly determine what you have to work with. There’s a significant difference in planning when you have a 250 ft2 studio as opposed to a 760 ft2 studio, for example.

Small studio apartment

Working with a small studio apartment

If you have a small studio apartment (under 600 ft2), no problem! You can still create an impressive work-from-home space. You just have to be more creative! For example, you may need to find a modular sofa to work in your space. You can always use a virtual room design app if you need to visualise how things could work!

When you have a small apartment, you may want to consider things like a Murphy bed. This is simply a bed that folds down from the wall when you sleep. You also want to choose a small entertainment centre. Or, you could consider mounting your television on the wall to save space.

Large studio apartment

Working with a large studio apartment

If you have a large studio apartment (over 600 ft2), you have many more options. You’ll want to begin listing all the things you want to have in your larger studio apartment in terms of furniture, home entertainment features, the size of your bed and additional aspects.

After creating a list of the things you want in your large studio apartment, figure out where in your apartment your work-from-home workstation would fit. You’ll have much more room compared to a small studio apartment. Therefore, you can likely fit more things into your workstation. Create a list of what you would like your workstation to include. You can always remove things later.

Studio apartment workstation

Moving forward with your workstation

Now that you know what you want in your workstation, and where you’ll put it, it’s time to move forward! You’re going to go ahead and source your items. Shopping can be so fun! It also can be super easy when you’re shopping online. Many people shop on huge websites like Amazon or Overstock. However, we do want to point out that buying large items can be a bit tricky online.

The reason it can be tricky is that it can be hard to gauge how those large items will actually look “in person” after you purchase them. So, you may want to go to a store or shopping mall to purchase your desk and other large items. This way, you can measure them, visualise them and really understand how they’ll look when you finish your wonderful new workstation!

Taking these tips into account, you’re on your way to creating an amazing work-from-home space!

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Four upgrades for your home office space

Four upgrades for your home office space

The way that we work has been one of the most-impacted life factors by the COVID-19 pandemic. Once reserved for only a select few, working from home has become the norm in society as people stay indoors and avoid mixing with others in order to keep the spread of Coronavirus to a minimum. And for many, this has meant a new challenge at home has arisen in the form of setting up a suitable home office space.

Spare bedrooms, garages and conservatories all around the world have become home office spaces as employees adjust to working and living in the selfsame place. If you’re tired of your home office set-up and want something more comfortable and stylish, here are some top tips to get you started.

Green paint roller illustration

Redecorate

If you’re working in your garage or in a spare bedroom that has been used for storage for years, chances are that the décor could do with a refresh. Choosing colours that are energizing and invigorating is a great option for working from home as it’ll help you feel ready to go every time you go into your home office space in the morning. If you want to get even more creative, consider making a feature wall behind your desk using luxurious wallpaper designs or large-scale art to add some interest to the room.

Home office illustration

Add luxury accessories

Adding some luxurious accessories to your home office space can make you feel like you’re the CEO of a top company. Versace throws are soft, fluffy and look amazing in any home office thrown over the back of your office chair or on the armchair in the corner where you like to sit and relax during your screen break time. You can find various Versace Home accessories to add to your home office and the other rooms in your house. Versace’s signature styles are easy to recognise and make the perfect addition to your new workspace at home.

Office chairs illustration

Invest in ergonomic furniture

The look of your home office is not enough when it comes to your comfort. If you’ve noticed back pain or muscle aches as you’ve been working from home over the past few months, it might be down to an office chair or desk that isn’t providing you with the support that you need. Investing in ergonomic furniture can make all the difference to how you feel as you work from home. You might also want to consider a sit-stand desk to help combat the effects of a sedentary lifestyle and help you feel better overall.

Home office illustration

Add plenty of storage

Finally, if you’re working in a room that’s cluttered with your family’s additional stuff or accumulating tons of papers and documents as working from home, smart storage solutions can be your saviour. Keeping everything neatly stored and out of the way will not only ensure that the room is more comfortable for working in, but it will also make sure that it’s distraction-free, allowing you to work each day with a clear mind.

With working from home now the new normal, is it time to make some upgrades to your home office space?

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