see…it does make a difference to turn off your computer at the end of the day!
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 03.23.10
Science & Technology (electronics)
Read the complete article on TreeHugger
“In the U.S. alone, over $2.8 billion of PC power is being wasted every year.”
We’ve written many times about easy power management strategies for computers. Whether it is for your computer at home or for thousands of computers in an office building, there’s no reason not to take advantage of power-saving settings. Everybody wins: you get a smaller electricity bill, and less pollution is produced by power plants. The most recent example of putting this in practice comes from Ford. By centrally controlling the power settings on the company’s computers, they are saving an estimated $1.2 million annually and keeping between 16,000 and 25,000 metric tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere.
This is Basic, All Companies Should Do the Same
In the past, up to 60% of Ford employees using computers didn’t shut down their computers at the end of the day (I wouldn’t be surprised if something very similar is happening at lots of companies without a clear policy about IT energy efficiency).
The cost savings and reduced carbon footprint are obtained by developing “Power Profiles” for each PC in the company. With its power profile enabled, each PC monitors its usage patterns and determines when it can be turned off. If the user is working late, he or she will be alerted of the approaching power down and given the opportunity to delay it. In addition, the PC is able to detect when a Microsoft Office product is active and is able to save open documents before shutting down in case the user is not present.
According to 1E Inc, the company that helped Ford with this project, “In the U.S. alone, over $2.8 billion of PC power is being wasted every year.” Crazy. Wasteful. A drain on the economy.
