You may not know this, but even when the University is closed, there are still significant costs required to keep the campus running. For example, in 2023 over the Christmas holiday break the University used almost one million kWh of electricity, which costs approximately £277,000. That’s the annual electricity consumption of 300 average UK homes.

Our Facilities Management teams will be working hard to ensure that we can save as much energy as possible during this time by isolating the heating and ventilation services to buildings that will be unoccupied during the holiday period. However, we can all do our bit to help reduce these energy costs by switching off unnecessary equipment and lighting over the Christmas period.

Before you leave the office for your Christmas break, be sure to: 

• shut down your PCs and unplug any laptops, docking stations and phone chargers
• switch off monitors (it’s worth checking your colleagues’ monitors and shared computer labs too) 
• turn off standalone printers and scanners (excluding MFDs – these must remain switched on to prevent them from losing their settings, but they are able to power down on their own) 
• make sure no lights are left on (including Christmas lights) 
• switch of any heaters, air con units and extractor fans
• turn off any research equipment that doesn’t need to stay on over the closure period
• alter any timers on lights and equipment
• close windows and blinds to maintain temperatures and increase security. 

Some of these tips may even prove to be useful reminders for your home office too. Remember, do not switch off any equipment that is in use for vital experiments, research or local fridges and freezers.

And most importantly, remember to take a break for yourself and switch off from work over the Christmas break. This year has been another challenging year for us all, and for many, the Christmas period will be no exception to this.

For those who will be returning to the office after the Christmas break, you might find it’s a little cooler than normal, so remember to bring a warm jumper. Check out this blog about how you can keep warm whilst looking after the environment by choosing sustainable fabrics.