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Energy Use

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by titus

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Due to California's energy usage concerns, I'm wondering about how much energy computers use. I'm a librarian and would like to know a bit more about how Windows (both 98 and 95) can save energy within the Power settings. Currently we have these all set to 'never'. My concern is, in a public setting, people are used to a computer always being on, and if it has turned off due to no use, they think it is out of order... Do the settings that just slow down the hard drive actually help reduce energy usage? Would this be invisible for a patron coming up to use the PC? What computer activities use the most energy? Our public computers are used for searching our catalog using telnet, and using internet. We do turn off all PCs at night, but I'm wondering how we can reduce energy usage during slow times when the library is open.

2 replies

by w-bryant

Costominse you power setings to run a screen saver, powerdown hard disk and CPUfan,
the screen wil still disply the image but, power consumption will be reduced

by thmiuatga

Hello;
You can shut down the CPU (suspend the cycles) and only the cooling fans and the power supply will still be running. This is called "Stop Clock" mode. If you have an energy compliant monitor using a screensaver program won't hurt you. The monitors are designed to enter "energy saver" mode after a certain period of inactivity. When you close up shop I suggest that you shut off only the monitors. There is a reason for this. because of their design and internal components monitors (cathoderay tube) are prone to malfunction and can explode causing a fire. Ihis is why I shut off my monitor but keep the tower on when I leave home. Also it is best to shut down and reboot a system that has been in a low power state. this makes sure that windows shuts down and boots as it should. running a system after waking it will be prone to errors and crashes (it has happened to me). As for the hard drives, I do not let my drives spin down. you may want to use a different setting. I would like tosuggest A site I use and recommend. it's
www.pcguide.com and there you will find a lot of useful facts of reference concerning PC's
plus a bit more on what I just told you.
Good Luck!

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