TreeHugger.com: Interview: Verdiem, Making Computers Use Less Energy
firebus
· 2 years ago
I'd like to note one common myth that this article perpetuates - the idea that turning computers off at night saves power.
This used to be true across the board, and may still be true in some cases, however many modern computers draw more power in the off position than they do in standby. This is due in part to features like wake on LAN which are often on by default. The same is often true of monitors and other peripherals.
Many companies push updates to their workstations at night to avoid inconveniencing users, and to make sure that updates happen on schedule. The consequences of missing an update can be quite expensive for the company (theft of customer financial data, for instance)
So I think it's irresponsible to recommend that people turn off their computers at night in all cases. You're not necessarily saving energy, and you're potentially exposing your employer and customers to liability.
This isn't meant to discount the ideas behind surveyor - without more technical details it's impossible to know how the product handles wake on LAN and other features that draw power in standby and off positions.
Coll B.
· 2 years ago
I turn off my computer at night thus saving energy and the computer - though a colleague said that computers last longer when left on all the time - I had a computer which lasted me five years after turning it off when I'd finish using it - This idea is great but those who seem to benefit are big companies.
barry
· 2 years ago
hi-
I'd agree that automated backups/updates etc usually happen at night, but I'm sure power-saving can work around those times.
I notice that the sleep mode on my mac is a lot faster and more reliable than the equivalent on my PC, and hence I use it much more. I hope I'm saving some energy, but I dont know for sure...
Power consumption on some of the latest PCs (esp powerful graphics cards) is getting a bit much.
Joe
· 2 years ago
The first person's post is really more misleading than any of the comments in this article. He says that systems actually consume more power in the off mode than they do in a standby mode. That's just flat wrong. On average systems will drop to around 5-10 watts in standby, but when they go to off mode they hardly ever (if ever at all) draw more than 2 watts of power. And yes, that's to monitor the NIC card as well as the on/off button. Grab a watt meter and prove it for yourself if you'd like.
Also, if you take a moment to read through this company's website you easily can see that the centralized approach to controlling pwr states allows them to wake PCs remotely and then put them back into a sleep or off mode, when one is done pushing patches or such. No need at all to leave systems on for IT to do their thing --just turn em on when you need them on --but leave em off when they're just sitting there doing nothing but eating energy (like leaving a 100 watt light bulb on all the time). This makes perfect sense to me...
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
I believe the initial surge of power to turn on a computer uses more energy than keeping it on all day.
Tree Television
· 2 years ago
turn off your computer whenever possible, no need to run it on all night.
Paul Theodoropoulos
· 2 years ago
"I believe the initial surge of power to turn on a computer uses more energy than keeping it on all day. "
absolutely, unequivocally, and demonstrably, FALSE.
please, buy yourself a wattmeter and do some science of your own before posting misinformation. they are cheap, you can get them on ebay for less than $30 (the 'kill-a-watt').
i have my pc connected through a watt-hour-meter. there is no 'initial surge' that's any higher than the maximum the machine will consume at any given moment. when i first turn my pc on, it uses about 185 to 200 watts. while it's running, it uses from 135 to 170 watts. two seconds of 200 watts is inconsequential compared to 135 watts continuous.
Dean
· 2 years ago
This software looks awesome, too bad there isn't some sort of open source type of software so that many more people would be able to download something like this for free. Hint, anybody want to start this project?
Graham Miln
· 2 years ago
There is a marked energy difference between a switched off and sleeping computer.
Take a look at the research linked below - it collates the latest studies and provides real world case studies of the potential savings.
Yes, what an amazing new invention... hmmm have you read the (no) "privacy" policy...
"We may disclose personal information to thid party service providers (e.g., payment processing and data storage and processing facilities) that assist us in our work. We limit the personal information provided to these service providers to that reasonably necessary for them to perform their functions."
So you'll allow them to take all information on your pc and sell it to anybody they want. MS will anyways have access to all you private information, which is defined like this:
"Personal information also includes information about an individual’s activities, such as information about his or her purchases, and demographic information, such as date of birth, gender, geographic area, and preferences, when any of this information is linked to personal information that identifies that individual."
So it covers just about anything about you... I would never ever install this.
About saving power by turning off you pc at night: off course you should turn it off!!!!! No one in my company (with 1000 employees) keep their pc on at night). It's company policy that we turn of light, computer etc. at night to save power. There is NO "power surge" when you turn a PC on - that's ridicilous!!
I just read about how much energy would be conserved if Microsoft would make Windows start faster... it takes a ridicilous time to start - maybe 5 minutes for many people... and also to shut down. This would save WAY more energy than this software...
Come on guys, it's crazy just to keep your computer on 24/7 - at least use sleep mode at night...
All Comments
I'd like to note one common myth that this article perpetuates - the idea that turning computers off at night saves power.
This used to be true across the board, and may still be true in some cases, however many modern computers draw more power in the off position than they do in standby. This is due in part to features like wake on LAN which are often on by default. The same is often true of monitors and other peripherals.
Many companies push updates to their workstations at night to avoid inconveniencing users, and to make sure that updates happen on schedule. The consequences of missing an update can be quite expensive for the company (theft of customer financial data, for instance)
So I think it's irresponsible to recommend that people turn off their computers at night in all cases. You're not necessarily saving energy, and you're potentially exposing your employer and customers to liability.
This isn't meant to discount the ideas behind surveyor - without more technical details it's impossible to know how the product handles wake on LAN and other features that draw power in standby and off positions.
I turn off my computer at night thus saving energy and the computer - though a colleague said that computers last longer when left on all the time - I had a computer which lasted me five years after turning it off when I'd finish using it - This idea is great but those who seem to benefit are big companies.
hi-
I'd agree that automated backups/updates etc usually happen at night, but I'm sure power-saving can work around those times.
I notice that the sleep mode on my mac is a lot faster and more reliable than the equivalent on my PC, and hence I use it much more. I hope I'm saving some energy, but I dont know for sure...
Power consumption on some of the latest PCs (esp powerful graphics cards) is getting a bit much.
The first person's post is really more misleading than any of the comments in this article. He says that systems actually consume more power in the off mode than they do in a standby mode. That's just flat wrong. On average systems will drop to around 5-10 watts in standby, but when they go to off mode they hardly ever (if ever at all) draw more than 2 watts of power. And yes, that's to monitor the NIC card as well as the on/off button. Grab a watt meter and prove it for yourself if you'd like.
Also, if you take a moment to read through this company's website you easily can see that the centralized approach to controlling pwr states allows them to wake PCs remotely and then put them back into a sleep or off mode, when one is done pushing patches or such. No need at all to leave systems on for IT to do their thing --just turn em on when you need them on --but leave em off when they're just sitting there doing nothing but eating energy (like leaving a 100 watt light bulb on all the time). This makes perfect sense to me...
I believe the initial surge of power to turn on a computer uses more energy than keeping it on all day.
turn off your computer whenever possible, no need to run it on all night.
"I believe the initial surge of power to turn on a computer uses more energy than keeping it on all day. "
absolutely, unequivocally, and demonstrably, FALSE.
please, buy yourself a wattmeter and do some science of your own before posting misinformation. they are cheap, you can get them on ebay for less than $30 (the 'kill-a-watt').
i have my pc connected through a watt-hour-meter. there is no 'initial surge' that's any higher than the maximum the machine will consume at any given moment. when i first turn my pc on, it uses about 185 to 200 watts. while it's running, it uses from 135 to 170 watts. two seconds of 200 watts is inconsequential compared to 135 watts continuous.
This software looks awesome, too bad there isn't some sort of open source type of software so that many more people would be able to download something like this for free. Hint, anybody want to start this project?
There is a marked energy difference between a switched off and sleeping computer.
Take a look at the research linked below - it collates the latest studies and provides real world case studies of the potential savings.
http://www.dssw.co.uk/research/
My company makes Power Manager, an energy saving product for Macs.
http://www.dssw.co.uk/powermanager/
Yes, what an amazing new invention... hmmm have you read the (no) "privacy" policy...
"We may disclose personal information to thid party service providers (e.g., payment processing and data storage and processing facilities) that assist us in our work. We limit the personal information provided to these service providers to that reasonably necessary for them to perform their functions."
So you'll allow them to take all information on your pc and sell it to anybody they want. MS will anyways have access to all you private information, which is defined like this:
"Personal information also includes information about an individual’s activities, such as information about his or her purchases, and demographic information, such as date of birth, gender, geographic area, and preferences, when any of this information is linked to personal information that identifies that individual."
So it covers just about anything about you... I would never ever install this.
About saving power by turning off you pc at night: off course you should turn it off!!!!! No one in my company (with 1000 employees) keep their pc on at night). It's company policy that we turn of light, computer etc. at night to save power. There is NO "power surge" when you turn a PC on - that's ridicilous!!
I just read about how much energy would be conserved if Microsoft would make Windows start faster... it takes a ridicilous time to start - maybe 5 minutes for many people... and also to shut down. This would save WAY more energy than this software...
Come on guys, it's crazy just to keep your computer on 24/7 - at least use sleep mode at night...