By Graham K. Rogers

Many companies and organisations, as well as individual users, are concerned not only about energy costs but the environmental effects power generation can have, so companies like Epson seek out viable solutions.

To help reduce costs in the area of printing, Epson has developed its Workforce series of inkjet printers. These use up to 80% less power than equivalent laser printers, so could becomes more attractive in offices where the laser printer has been the staple device for many years.

At CeBit, held in Hanover recently, an Epson WorkForce Pro 4595 DNF inkjet printer was connected to a bicycle and users were able to generate enough power (30 Watts) to start the printer and print a page of text. As a laser printer requires 700 Watts this would have been beyond the capabilities of most users.

Information concerning the products are available via the Epson regional pages.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.