 | | | | Tips for computer energy use at Town Hall |
| | | | | Town Hall Departments have over 175 networked personal computers supporting staff and administrative activities. In support of the Town Hall Energy Initiative for energy use, the MIS Department has developed guidelines for energy saving actions you can take with personal computers. We can save thousands of kilowatt hours (kWh) annually from these actions, without impacting function or service. | #1 Choose a power scheme A power scheme is a predefined collection of power options. Choose a power scheme to apply settings that fit the way you use your computer, or use one as a starting point for creating your own personalized power scheme. To choose a power scheme open the Power Options in Control Panel. Under Power Schemes, select the power scheme you want. The power settings you see will change depending on the power scheme you choose. Notes To open Power Options, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Power Options. Preset time settings appear in the Turn off monitor and Turn off hard disks lists on the Power Schemes tab. You can change these settings by clicking the arrow and then clicking the time you want. You can create a new power scheme by clicking the time settings you want, clicking Save As, and typing a name. Power Options automatically detects what is available on your computer and shows you only the options that you can control For most users, we suggest the Home/Office Desk default setting. |
Power Management and Energy Savings Today’s PCs come with advanced power management. These energy saving features place inactive monitors and computers (CPU, hard drive, etc.) into a low-power usage “sleep” mode. A simple touch of the mouse or keyboard “wakes” the computer and monitor in seconds. It is possible to choose different power savings configurations for your computer that best meet your needs. Note: If you are unable to change your energy settings, they have likely been restricted by MIS for required activities. | Energy Saving Recommendations Monitor Power Management – A Must! - Turn off a monitor display or put it in a lower-power or sleep mode during periods of inactivity.
- Avoid using screensavers – they waste energy and do not save the screen.
The table below presents vendor terminology for power management features in the two commonly used operating systems at MIT. Town Hall Recommendations for Power Management Platform | Monitor | Computer |
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| Windows | Turn Off Display | Turn Off Hard Disk | Standby Mode | | If you will not be using the monitor for 10 or more minutes Time to wake up is less than 5 seconds | After 5 minutes of inactivity | After 1 hour of inactivity | | Savings (watts) | 33-60 (LCD-CRT) | 2-3 | 15-65 |
Detailed Instructions: For assistance in configuring these energy savings modes on your machine, please call MIS X161. Computer Power Management We advise that you DO NOT enable the Computer Power Management Features, IF you rely on the following activities which require the computer to be on: - Remote system administration or scheduled maintenance (e.g., nightly jobs)
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| Power Savings Benefits Adopting energy savings practices will reduce energy use during periods of inactivity. A single Desktop with a 17" LCD monitor contributes 500kWh in annual savings. As a reference, an average home in Dennis uses 700kWh per month. | Power Saving
(watts) | Annual Energy Saving
(kWh) | | Desktop (P4) | 65 | 332 | | Laptop | 15 | 76 | | Monitor - 17" CRT | 60 | 306 | | Monitor - 17" LCD | 33 | 168 |
Added Benefits: - Reduced heat dissipation leading to reduced cooling energy
- Extra battery time for laptops
- Lower noise from reduced use of power supply and cooling fans
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Using Power Options in Control Panel, you can reduce the power consumption of any number of your computer devices or of your entire system. You do this by choosing a power scheme, which is a collection of settings that manages the power usage by your computer. You can create your own power schemes or use the ones provided with Windows. You can also adjust the individual settings in a power scheme. For example, depending on your hardware, you can: - Turn off your monitor and hard disks automatically to save power.
- Put the computer on standby when it is idle. While on standby, your entire computer switches to a low-power state where devices, such as the monitor and hard disks, turn off and your computer uses less power. When you want to use the computer again, it comes out of standby quickly, and your desktop is restored exactly as you left it. Standby is particularly useful for conserving battery power in portable computers. Because Standby does not save your desktop state to disk, a power failure while on Standby can cause you to lose unsaved information.
- Put your computer in hibernation. The hibernate feature saves everything in memory on disk, turns off your monitor and hard disk, and then turns off your computer. When you restart your computer, your desktop is restored exactly as you left it. It takes longer to bring your computer out of hibernation than out of standby.
Typically, you turn off your monitor or hard disk for a short period to conserve power. If you plan to be away from your computer for a while, you put your computer on standby, which puts your entire system in a low-power state. Put your computer in hibernation when you will be away from the computer for an extended time or overnight. When you restart the computer, your desktop is restored exactly as you left it. To automatically put your computer on standby - Open Power Options in Control Panel.
- In Power Schemes, click the down arrow, and then select a . The time settings for the power scheme are displayed in System standby, Turn off monitor, and Turn off hard disks.
- To turn off your monitor before your computer goes on standby, select a time in Turn off monitor.
- To turn off your hard disk before your computer goes on standby, select a time in Turn off hard disks.
- To open Power Options, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Power Options.
- You might want to save your work before putting your computer on standby. While the computer is on standby, information in computer memory is not saved to your hard disk. If there is an interruption in power, information in memory is lost.
- To create a new power scheme, specify the time settings you want, and then click Save As.
- If you're using a portable computer, you can specify one setting for battery power and a different setting for AC power.
- To put your computer on standby, you must have a computer that is set up by the manufacturer to support this option.
- Using Power Options in Control Panel, you can adjust any power management option that your computer's unique hardware configuration supports. Because these options may vary widely from computer to computer, the options described may differ from what you see. Power Options automatically detects what is available on your computer and shows you only the options that you can control.
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| | | |  Myth or Fact | | | | | | | | | | | | Over the years, several myths have created barriers to energy saving actions. Some of the common ones are explored below: Myth: Computers don't use much energy. Fact: Office electronics are the fastest growing use of electricity in commercial buildings in the United States. Computers, as a group, use the most energy of all office equipment. In addition to their direct energy use, computers generate significant heat which adds to the buildings' air-conditioning load over much of the year. Myth: Operations costs for computers are minimal. Fact: Electric power cost about $38 per year for each computer. If all computers were turned off each night and weekend, the Town would save about 20% of that cost. Myth: If you shut your hard drive off, it doesn't matter if the monitor is left on. Fact: Most monitors consume about two-thirds of a computer's total energy use. Myth: Screen savers save your screen. Fact: Screen savers were originally developed to prevent the permanent etching of a pattern on older monochrome monitors. The same protection occurs when you place the monitor in a low power “sleep” mode. Avoiding the use of screensavers on LCD and CRT displays can reduce power usage while away from your computer by 30-75 watts. Myth: Computers have a shorter life when you turn them on and off frequently. Fact: Hard disks in PCs older than 10 years did not automatically park their heads when shut off, leading to disk damage from frequent on/off power cycling. Newer PCs are designed to handle over 40,000 on/off cycles, a number unlikely to be reached during an MIT computer’s typical four-to-six-year life span. Myth: Turning your computer off uses more energy than leaving it on. Fact: The surge of power when a computer is turned off lasts a few seconds and is insignificant compared to the sustained energy used in keeping it on during periods of inactivity. Myth: It takes a long time boot up every morning. Fact: Although it may seem like a long time to wait when you are staring at the screen, it only takes 1-2 minutes for your computer to boot up. Please use this time to check your voice mail or conduct other tasks. | | | | Tips to Save Computer Energy Use Shut the computer off at night. Please turn the whole system off each night. If you can't turn off the CPU, you can always save energy by just turning off the monitor.
Turn off the monitor when you will be gone. You can save as much as two-thirds of a computer's energy use just by turning off the monitor. This does not affect your operations, just switch it back on when you return. We suggest you do this before lunch, before long meetings and any time you expect to be away from your desk for more than a half-hour.
Set your monitor to go "blank". Since screen savers actually force the computer to use energy to run them, you can save energy by setting the monitor to blank out after a specified period. Pull down the "Screen Savers" list and choose "Blank Screen." Set the "Wait" time for the period you choose.
Don't forget about the printers. Printers also use a significant amount of energy: particularly laser printers. Please shut them off nights and weekends along with your computer. | | | | | | | Energy Saving Settings for Personal Computers Faculty and staff can help UC San Diego conserve energy and reduce costs by following these guidelines for personal computer use: Shut down your desktop computer when you leave for the day, unless otherwise instructed by your network administrator. Set your computer to use energy-saving features during the day, when you're away from your desk. Recommended settings include: Monitor sleep mode after 15 minutes of inactivity - Lowers hourly energy usage from 90 to 5 watts for CRT monitors and from 30 watts to 1 watt for flat-panel monitors
- Screen will turn dark, although applications continue to run
- Moving the mouse "awakens" the screen and restores the normal view within seconds
System standby mode after 30 minutes of inactivity - Reduces the computer’s hourly power consumption from approximately 90–100 watts to 5–10 watts
- Moving the mouse activates the computer within a few minutes
- All programs that were open before the computer entered standby will still be active
- While in this mode, the computer cannot run applications. Do not enable this function if you use continuously running applications.
Note: Save work before leaving your desk. If computer power is interrupted while in standby mode, all non-saved work will be lost. Hibernate mode after 1 hour of inactivity - Similar to standby, but it protects unsaved work by storing it in temporary memory before powering down
- Startup can take 3 to 4 minutes
If you have questions about power settings, contact Steve Buss (508) 760-6161. | |
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