Most non-residential buildings are unoccupied at Christmas as the regular occupants are at home for the holiday season. But, for many buildings, the Christmas period is a disaster as far as energy management is concerned, as lots of equipment is left switched on unnecessarily.

Computers, printers, lights, photocopiers, industrial equipment - the list goes on, but the energy theme is simple: if you don't switch it off before you go home for the holidays, it'll probably still be on when you get back...

And of course it will have been consuming energy for the whole time that you've been away.

Of course, in many buildings there's a similar effect every weekend, and, to a lesser extent, at the end of each working day. But at Christmas the cumulative effect is magnified, as more buildings are closed, and the closure period is longer. This year, for example, Christmas falls on a Thursday, which means that with the holidays on Thursday and Friday, followed by the weekend, that's a minimum of four consecutive days of closure - more for those buildings that remain closed until new year.

It's perhaps a little late to be suggesting this... But now would be an ideal time for a mini energy awareness campaign to encourage staff to make sure that they switch things off before they go home. Even a short email fired around at the last minute could make a big difference, as it's pretty likely that switching things off will be the last thing on most people's minds otherwise!