With the increasing emphasis on reducing the negative impact on our environment, you must be wondering if there is anything practical at all that you can contribute. Well, PC World has come up with some tips on how to to minimize your power consumption.
The best part is that you don't even have to wait for the next purchasing cycle to start evaluating power consumption of the computers. By configuring the various power settings of the PCs under your care, you will be able to reduce power consumption -- and save money -- immediately.
To spur you on, consider a study on General Electric, conducted by EPA's Energy Start program:
[The study] showed the effect of employing the power-management functionality of Windows XP and Windows 2000 across 75,000 PCs. By setting monitors to shut down after 15 minutes and PCs to go into sleep mode after 30 minutes and full hibernation mode after 3 hours, the company saved $2.5 million per year in energy costs. The EPA estimates this was enough energy to power 23,000 homes each year. And the reduction in carbon emissions associated with that energy was estimated at 20,000 tons—the equivalent of planting 5,600 trees.
If you intend to tweak the power settings, do allow users -- in particular laptop totting ones -- to override your settings as necessary. There are also a number of dedicated software management tools to the effect.
The bottom line is clear: You can make a difference even if you're not the CTO or IT manager. What have you done to reduce power consumption in your company?
Paul Mah is a writer and blogger who lives in Singapore, where he has worked for a number of years in various capacities within the IT industry. Paul enjoys tinkering with tech gadgets, smartphones, and networking devices.