Sunday, March 2, 2008

Save Your $$$ With Power Management Features



ENERGY STAR Power Management features — standard in Windows and Macintosh operating systems — place monitors and computers (CPU, hard drive, etc.) into a low-power “sleep mode” after a period of inactivity. Simply touching the mouse or keyboard “wakes” the computer and monitor in seconds. Activating sleep features saves energy, money, and helps protect the environment.

There are many ways to activate sleep features across entire networks of computers, including free solutions that utilize open source software and/or tools that you may already have at your disposal. Alternatively, a number of commercial software packages offer more feature-rich solutions for a fee, and may deliver more energy savings.

To maximize power savings, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends setting computers to enter system standby or hibernate after 30 to 60 minutes of inactivity. To save even more, set monitors to enter sleep mode after 5 to 20 minutes of inactivity. The lower the setting, the more energy you save.

On laptops, be sure to activate these settings in the AC power profile — not just the DC (battery power) profile.

No comments: