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James Goulding explains why it might be worth choosing a more powerful printer than you need if doing so gives you the beneft of high yield cartridges.

22 | p2p Magaz i ne | Summer 2011

ERGONOMICS

ELECTRONIC OFFICE SUPPLIES

Another aspect of ergonomics that organisations might want to consider is background noise, a source of real irritation in open plan offces. This can be alleviated in a number of ways, from sound-masking technology to sound absorbent ceilings, panels, screens and furniture. A much simpler solution, according to interior landscaping company Ambius, is to deck the offce with foliage.

Offce plants absorb noise and help combat noise-related stress in the workplace, which according to a recent study* can lead to stress and the risk of serious heart problems. Kenneth Freeman, international technical director for Ambius, said: “Interior landscaping plays a vital role in providing a pleasant and tranquil environment to work in, and has more

than an aesthetic value. Plants have good acoustic properties and are often used to screen noise from motorways and railway tracks and can be just as effective indoors.”

He added: “Boosting well-being in the work place should be a serious consideration for all employers as they look to get the most from their work force in this current economic climate. Plant displays multi-task: they remove carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds, defne space, improve ambience and reduce noise simultaneously. They can also be more cost-effective than engineered solutions.”

www.ambius.co.uk

*British Medical Journal – Exposure to occupational noise and cardiovascular disease in the United States: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2004

Once a feature of higher end devices, high yield cartridges are now being offered on entry-level machines, giving printer users in the home and offce the opportunity to make signifcant savings on print costs.

High yield consumables typically cost 60-70% more than standard cartridges. Not everyone wants to pay the extra, either because they have cash fow problems, because they don't print much or because they want to keep down the value of storeroom items to minimise losses from pilfering.

However, those that do can look forward to a much lower cost per page. High capacity cartridges are also more environmentally friendly as they reduce the number of toner/ink cartridges required in a product’s lifetime and associated manufacturing, transport and recycling requirements.

The main beneft though is fnancial.

Small printer, big cartridge: the Brother HL-2240

Go green

High yield cartridges return big savings

Where there is a choice of standard or high capacity consumables, the high yield cartridge, will always have a lower cost per page (CPP).

Brother’s 24 pages per minute HL-2240 personal printer, for example, has the option of a standard 1,200-page toner cartridge costing £43.19, which works out at 3.6p per page, and a high capacity 2,600-page cartridge costing £71.99 or 2.77p per page.

Adding in the cost of the separate drum unit, 0.71p per page, gives a total CPP of 4.31p for the standard cartridge and 3.48p for the high capacity one, representing a saving of almost 20%.

Worth an upgrade

With savings of this magnitude (and some models in Brother’s range offer savings of more than 30%), it may be prudent to buy a more powerful printer than you actually need just to gain the

option of higher capacity consumables. For ease of comparison, let's stick with Brother’s range. Its entry level mono printer, the 20 pages per minute HL-2132, costs £90 inc. VAT and takes standard-sized consumables only – a 1,000-page toner cartridge costing £39.58 and a 12,000-page drum unit (£85.19). This produces a CPP of 4.67p. In other words, it costs 1.19p more to print a standard page on an HL-2132 than it does on an HL-2240 ftted with a high yield toner cartridge. Another way of looking at it is that it would take 807 prints to make up the £9.60 price differential between the two printers. Attractive as they are, the savings revealed by Brother’s list prices are modest by some standards. At the time of going to press, Printerbase.co.uk was selling high yield consumables for the Samsung ML-2525W 24ppm mono wireless printer for almost the same price

andard cartridge, £55.22 inc. VAT compared to £49.52. Yields of 2,500 and 1,000 respectively mean that the high capacity CPP was just 2.2p – less than half that of the standard cartridge (4.9p).

Printer buyers have long been advised to calculate running costs when making their selections. The cost savings offered by high yield cartridges mean that today this advice is more relevant than ever.