Do you have the power to turn off your computer (or computers) at night? Are you like me and put your computer on standby so when you get up you have quicker access to your daily morning routine of checking e-mails? I have no excuses really, my computer is starting to run like a snail and it’s more convenient for me to keep it powered on then waiting for it to get up and running. I know it is using power, even in standby, but I wonder how much I could actually save by turning it off each night?
I can’t be the only one, right? Well, I’m not. Leaving PCs on overnight costs companies $2.8 billion a year, in the United States alone! Just imagine if we were able to extrapolate that number to every household? I couldn’t even imagine what that number would be. Maybe we need to have Earth Hour every night!
So what kind of impact do all these inactive, but powered on computers have at the workplace? With about 20 million tons of carbon dioxide emitted from the computers, it is equivalent to an extra 4 million cars on the road! The USA Today also reported that half of the 108 million PCs in the United States are not powered totally down at night according to the 2009 Energy Report produced by the 1E group.
According to 1E, if a company with 1,000 PCs would shut down their machines down every night, it would save the company over $26,000 per year at the current energy prices. By using those numbers, you could assume that with two computers on at home running overnight, it would consume an extra $52 per year. Taking this study even further, having your computer on while at work, you could could be adding a few more dollars to your monthly electric bill, easily!
It starting to make me think twice about leaving our computers on at night. Of course, there are times we do turn them off, but we don’t make any conscious decision to do so. I’ll be happy to save an extra $50 bucks a year (at least), thank you very much! That’s an easy frugal tip for everyone!
I’m happy to say though, that my company does implement a power down plan. Our machines will automatically shut down machines at 6:00 p.m. and automatically power them back up at 7:00 a.m. I like it when our IT department is one step ahead of the game!
So do you leave your computer on at work? What about at home?
Stupidly Yours,
Matt
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StupidCents was founded by Matt in 2009. His thoughts are shaped by his family and career and seasoned by his endless motivation to succeed personally, professionally, and financially.
Your computer users 2.3 watts when it is shut off and 2.3 watts when it is in hibernate. The number is slightly higher at 3.1 watts in sleep mode. To get it to zero you need to unplug it.
And $50/year in savings is unlikely… more like $15 max:
http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/technology/hardware/do-you-need-to-turn-off-your-pc-at-night.aspx#DoyouneedtoturnoffyourPCatnight
“Lab tests done by Dell show that a PC running Microsoft Office uses 42.7 watts, McCall says. If it runs continuously at that rate for 365 days, at 7 cents per kilowatt-hour, the power consumption costs would be $26.18 for the PC and $45.99 for a regular monitor, for a total of $72.17 for the workstation.
Flat-panel monitors use less energy (22 watts when left on, 3.3 watts in “sleep” mode) than regular monitors (75 watts when left on, 5 watts in “sleep” mode), McCall says. So the same workstation with Microsoft Office running for a year would use $39.67 in power with a flat panel.
Meanwhile, if a PC was kept in “sleep” mode for 20 hours, for every four hours “on,” as Dell recommends, the annual energy costs per PC would total $16.17 with a regular monitor and $9.88 with a flat panel. Using “hibernate,” the costs would be slightly cheaper. “
Nice analysis, MLI! First off, our computers are not exactly spring chickens, but they get the job done. They probably don’t have the latest and greatest ‘green’ hardware components that utilize less power. We also use wireless, so that must use some extra juice. That said, I derived my number based on the study by 1E where shutting down 1,000 PCs saves $26,000 per year or $26/computer. We have two, so that is where I got my $52 annual savings from.
Also, the author of the article made the following statement:
“If you’re a Windows user (Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Me), just set up your PC to “hibernate” overnight. “Hibernate” powers down your monitor to about 5 watts of energy and your PC to 2.3 watts — virtually the same as turning your PC off (your monitor uses zero watts when turned off; more on this below). Either way, you save as much as $90 a year in power costs compared to a PC left on with a 3D screen saver running.”
So I guess I have no idea what kind of supercomputer he is using!
I guess the best test is to hook up the computer to a Kill A Watt meter to get a more accurate reading. Then we’ll really know!
Stupidly Yours,
Matt
Ah, I see. I didn’t realize it was 2 computers!
And yeah, I guess the clarifier in his statement is “3d screen saver running.” That must add a good bit of wattage to keep the video card chugging along.
For the company that saves $26,000 year with 1,000 computers I may be wrong but I assume their are added cost savings of shutting other equipment off, too. Printers, networking equipment, etc? Not sure, though… that is just what I assumed!