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Given our state's reputation as an environmental leader (and the price of electricity these days!), it is not surprising that many Oregonians want to minimize the amount of energy their computers use.
Here are some simple steps that anyone can take to conserve energy:
If you're running Windows XP, you can set your PC to conserve power by going to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Power Options. You'll see a panel that probably looks something like this:
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Fig. 1: Windows XP Power Options panel.
To decrease the amount of power your system uses, change the power scheme from the typical Home/Office Desktop scheme to something more aggressive. For example, you might set your desktop PC to use the "Portable/Laptop" power scheme (even though your desktop PC obviously isn't a laptop). The power scheme will then look like Fig. 2 below:
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Fig. 2: Windows XP Power Options panel showing portable laptop power scheme.
Note that the values which are shown by default aren't set in stone. For example, if you'd like to turn your hard disk off after 25 minutes or 45 minutes instead of the default 30 minutes, you can freely adjust those settings to suit your needs.
On a Mac, go to Apple Menu->System Preferences-> Energy Saver. Adjust the sliders as desired.
A typical desktop system with an LCD panel that's left on around the clock can easily consume over $100 worth of power a year. This implies that over a four- or five-year system life, the capital cost of a typical system might be matched by the cost of the power it consumes (for actual power usage cost estimates, see the power usage calculator at http://www.eu-energystar.org/en/en_008.htm ) The simple step of enabling standby mode can easily halve that power consumption with minimum inconvenience.
An energy efficient laptop can use even less. Some energy efficient laptops may consume only $5 or $10 of power per year, although laptops often have higher initial costs (see related article regarding the emergence of budget laptops on page 28 of this issue).
Sure. Some systems are inherently poor candidates for power conservation strategies. Most servers, for example, need to run around the clock. Similarly, if your system needs to be up at night for backup, patching, or maintenance, you wouldn't want to take power conservation steps that might interfere with those tasks.
We know that when it comes right down to it, realizing energy savings at the university will be up to you. No one is going to come around and force you to make changes to how you manage your PC's power usage. We do ask, however, that you give the savings shown in this article some thought. If you can configure your PC appropriately, or make wise choices when buying a new system, the university can save a lot of money every year, and help the environment at the same time.