Mar 25 2009

Turn It Off When You Leave

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

"Turn out the lights when you leave" is advice thrifty parents often give their heedless children who don't pay the bills. Yet half of U.S. office workers forget those words when they leave their PCs running all night and on weekends, according to a newly released survey by London-based software services company 1E and the Alliance to Save Energy.

The report's findings are striking, for both the economic and environmental implications of this simple act of neglect:

Collectively, US organizations waste $2.8 billion every year powering 108 million unused PCs. In 2009, these unused PCs are expected to emit approximately 20 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions - roughly equivalent to the impact of 4 million cars. As an example, for an organization with 1,000 PCs, this amounts to approximately $26,000 per year.

(The report's cost figures assume an average price of electricity of $0.10 per kilowatt hour--well below the average rate in California.)

The report adds, "If all of the world's 1 billion PCs were powered down for just one night, it would save enough energy to light up New York City's Empire State Building--inside and out--for more than 30 years."

Among U.S. employees who leave their PCs on overnight or on weekends, more than a quarter say turning it off takes too long or they simply forget. They clearly need a nudge in the right direction--or, better yet, an automatic command to put their computers in sleep mode or turn them off entirely when they are gone.

PG&E business customers are eligible for rebates of $15 per PC for installing power management software on network servers to control large numbers of PCs remotely. That's a hard deal to pass up, especially considering it makes economic sense even without the incentive.  

As 1E's CEO remarked, "Employers today have a golden opportunity to demonstrate environmental and financially astute thought leadership by taking a few simple, energy-saving measures, such as setting up processes to power down PCs. Every day that passes is a lost opportunity to save money and reduce your carbon foot-print."

If you want to estimate how much money and power your organization is wasting by leaving computers on around the clock, check out 1E's convenient calculator. It might save you some bucks and help save the planet. 

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