What if saving money and energy were as simple as the flip of a switch or the push of a button?
It is!
You can save millions of dollars (and our planet)
by powering down your computer every day.
But let’s start small. What if you were asked to power down just one day for starters?
HP, Citrix, Intel and GTSI are asking you to do just that –
the four companies have teamed up to host Power IT Down Day this Friday, August 27.
Here’s David Smith, CTO at Citrix Federal and Christina Morrison, Public Sector Marketing Manager
at HP to tell you more:
Oh, and think saving a few kilowatt hours won’t make a big difference? To demonstrate the benefits of Power IT Down Day and how energy savings can be put to good use, our sponsors will make a donation to Wounded Warrior Project. Last year, we donated $45,000!
You can find (and share!) more information about Power IT Down Day in the FAQ sheet below:
What do you think? Is this an effective way to raise awareness about saving energy?
What other methods might be effective to educate citizens about the importance of powering down?
If you have any questions or ideas, please contact Christina Morrison.
Ok, back in the real world. If I power down my desktop PC when I leave the office each night, it will take 15 -20 minutes to run through various scripts, patches etc the next morning. If I leave the PC on and simply log off, it will take a minimum of 5-7 minutes to update the files in my email the next morning. But if I leave the system on with Outlook open and let it go into sleep mode overnight, I can be up and productive in under a minute. Consequently, I NEVER power down during the work week unless there is a problem and I rarely log off.
Oh, and if I turn off my printer at home (Canon 9500 Mark II), $120 worth of ink becomes a complete waste because the printer fails to activate and agitate periodically.
Provide equipment that actually turns on when it is supposed to or function without periodic system actions and I’ll power down regularly. Until then, sleep mode does the trick.
I have to agree with Peter. I’m hoping that the sleep mode saves enough energy. I just don’t have the time to wait for a boot up and there are too many annoying logins. I always turn off my laptop every weekend and when I’m bringing it home for telework. Maybe we should look into using netbooks. I’m typing on one new, which I only plug in once or twice a week. It seems to hold the charge longer than my laptop and weighs half as much.
Not a terribly viable option for MOST enterprise systems. Enterprise IT usually require the availability of IT resources 24/7 for update management amongst other things. Although IMO by engaging in a little bit of effort the possibility exists that enterprise systems could be shut off/powered down maybe once or twice a week and forced into the sleep mode 3 or 4 times a week thereby saving a significant amount of “green”
However there is no reason why Monitors cannot be turned off at Close of Business either manually or via “programming” from the PC which IMO would save a significant amount of “green”.
as @Peter says Printers are another story altogether. The newer printers (both Laser and InkJets) have a power save/sleep mode which can result in a significant saving of toner/ink not to mention
“green”
I think it’s a great reminder. I often fail to power down and I think it’s great to remind why it matters.