Leaving PCs on Overnight Costs Companies $2.8 Billion a Year

[fansince'76]

Leaving PCs on Overnight Costs Companies $2.8 Billion a Year

By Jon Swartz, USA Today

San Francisco — Even during an economic meltdown, when companies are scrambling to cut costs, businesses are wasting billions of dollars by leaving their PCs on at night.

U.S. organizations squander $2.8 billion a year to power unused machines, emitting about 20 million tons of carbon dioxide — roughly the equivalent of 4 million cars — according to a report to be released Wednesday.

About half of 108 million office PCs in the USA are not properly shut down at night, says the 2009 PC Energy Report, produced by 1E, an energy-management software company, and the non-profit Alliance to Save Energy. The report analyzed workplace PC power consumption in the USA, United Kingdom and Germany.

Wastefulness does not just affect a company's bottom line, it creates environmental concerns, the report says. If the world's 1 billion PCs were powered down just one night, it would save enough energy to light the Empire State Building — inside and out — for over 30 years, it says.

"Workers do not feel responsible for electricity bills at work, and some companies insist PCs remain on at night so they can be patched with software updates," says 1E CEO Sumir Karayi. He says 63% of employees surveyed said their companies should take more steps to save PC power.

"It is scary how much energy is wasted," says Michael Murphy, senior manager of global environmental affairs at Dell, a business partner and customer of 1E. It has used 1E software to efficiently manage its 50,000 PCs globally, saving about $1.8 million a year.

Simply shutting down PCs at night can save a company with 10,000 PCs over $260,000 a year and 1,871 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the report says.

"PCs can be a tremendous drain on electricity," says Doug Washburn, an analyst at Forrester Research. "During a nine-hour workday, it isn't always in use because of lunch, meetings and other things."

Leaving PCs on Overnight Costs Companies $2.8 Billion a Year

[steelwall]

I read this article earlier. I'm guilty of leaving my laptop on all night, but it does go into powersave mode?? Don't know how much difference that makes.

[Hammer Of The GODS]

It is an HUGE waste of money, besides PCs can't run continuously and big companies should have computer techs that know that.

Unless you are using a Mac, leaving your computer (PC) on all the time is an invitation to freeze ups and all kinds of other annoying shit like bogged down hard drive and memory.

If you've got a PC, shutting it down allows the bios to reboot and clear any glitches and hiccups that programs often get. If your PC is slow and acting different try a restart. Might solve your problems.



.

[steelwall]

Originally Posted by Hammer Of The GODS

It is an HUGE waste of money, besides PCs can't run continuously and big companies should have computer techs that know that.

Unless you are using a Mac, leaving your computer (PC) on all the time is an invitation to freeze ups and all kinds of other annoying shit like bogged down hard drive and memory.

If you've got a PC, shutting it down allows the bios to reboot and clear any glitches and hiccups that programs often get. If your PC is slow and acting different try a restart. Might solve your problems.



.

You're right on all points. And I have noticed when I do restart my laptop it runs much more smoothly, as much as I'm on my PC (use it for my job) I should have know that

[xfl2001fan]

Yeah, but running a restart does mean that your PC is still powered on...even if you're not logged on it. I think that the article is saying to shut it down for the night instead of logging off/restarting. (Personally, I do a restart at the end of the night almost every night anyways.)

[steelwall]

I think my lap top shuts down automaticly, every morning there's not lighs on, or is the fan running and I have to push the power button and it boots up. On the other hand, if anything was left open from the night before its still there so... I dunno...

Guess I just need to stop being so lazy and shut it down, but it seems I remember some computer guy telling me it wears the life of the computer down when you constantly power on and off, but he might not have known what the hell he was talking about anyway......

[xfl2001fan]

steelwall - It sounds like your computer is going into powersave mode...which is a good thing. I have yet to find one computer guy who disagrees with your computer guy when it concerns the life expectancy of a computer being turned on and off on a regular basis.

Now, if your monitor doesn' t have a powersave feature, I've been told that you should be turning it off at night.

[revefsreleets]

2.8 billion? That's all?

Pah!

[Hammer67]

Originally Posted by steelwall

I think my lap top shuts down automaticly, every morning there's not lighs on, or is the fan running and I have to push the power button and it boots up. On the other hand, if anything was left open from the night before its still there so... I dunno...

Guess I just need to stop being so lazy and shut it down, but it seems I remember some computer guy telling me it wears the life of the computer down when you constantly power on and off, but he might not have known what the hell he was talking about anyway......

PC's and servers are made to be left on. That's why power saving features are built into Operating Systems. I always leave my PC on, yet in sleep mode.

There was a push at my company about 3 months ago to shut off desktops remotely every day after 5:00pm and power them back on at 6:00am. A good policy to save energy. While a single PC isn't really affecting your electric bill, thousands certainly can.

But, for my home PC, I always leave it on. For two reasons, 1) I stream music and pictures to my TV in my living room from it and 2) Powering up and down a PC wears on the fans and hard drives. They are designed with constant running in mind.

[steelwall]

Originally Posted by Hammer67

PC's and servers are made to be left on. That's why power saving features are built into Operating Systems. I always leave my PC on, yet in sleep mode.

There was a push at my company about 3 months ago to shut off desktops remotely every day after 5:00pm and power them back on at 6:00am. A good policy to save energy. While a single PC isn't really affecting your electric bill, thousands certainly can.

But, for my home PC, I always leave it on. For two reasons, 1) I stream music and pictures to my TV in my living room from it and 2) Powering up and down a PC wears on the fans and hard drives. They are designed with constant running in mind.

Cool preciate that info, allways good when I can continue to be lazy.