Why Sleep?

Virtual problem, actual solution

Pitt’s campus is more wired than ever before. About 26,000 computers and monitors on campus currently generate in excess of $1 million in energy costs each year.

Research shows that nobody is using desktop computers for the majority of the time they are running, because people leave them on 24 hours a day.

Idling computer monitors across the United States waste approximately $900 million in energy costs each year. If every U.S. business followed Pitt’s conservation example, the country could reduce air pollution equivalent to removing 1.5 million cars from the road for one year. Ultimately, the country could save enough electricity each year to power Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Individually, by using monitor power management techniques, you are contributing the equivalent of planting 1,000 to 6,000 square feet of trees or preventing one to four weeks’ worth of car emissions.

The federal government’s Energy Star program offers a free download with easy, step-by-step instructions that will enable your monitor to go into sleep mode.

Using monitor sleep settings does not sacrifice computer performance or interfere with network connections. Rather, it may actually prolong the life of your monitor. And waking up a monitor is as simple as touching the keyboard or mouse, both of which quickly restore the display.

Remember that sleep mode differs from screen saver programs, which merely prevent images from burning into your monitor screen but do nothing to save energy. In fact, screen savers that display moving images prompt your system to use as much power as when you are actively using the computer.

Doing your part

Beyond using the monitor sleep mode feature, you can also help reduce your computer’s energy consumption by developing good power management habits. A few suggestions include:

• Checking e-mail or using the Internet only when you need to, rather than first thing in the morning, so you don’t turn on your computer at the start of the day and leave it running;
• Leaving your laser printer off until you are ready to use it;
• Grouping your computer tasks during one or two parts of the day, leaving the system off during other times;
• Turning on different pieces of equipment one at a time, instead of all at once with the switch on a power strip; and
• Turning off your entire computer system, or at least your monitor and printer, when you go to lunch or a meeting.

This program is sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Division of Facilities Management, and Computing Services and Systems Development.