Power management & conservation is more important than ever.

Forgetting to turn off the computer when you leave the office at night?

It may be costing your organization hundreds of thousands of dollars.

About 30 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity is wasted each year when workers do not shut down their energy-guzzling computers. That translates to about $3 billion annually -- or more than $8 million every day.

According to an 2009 publication by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA - "Improving the Energy Performance of Buildings" - Education ranks third in overall energy consumption of commercial buildings in the united states (2003) and computers account for 4% of commercial energy end-use carbon-dioxide emissions in the United States (the same percentage of emissions associated with refrigeration.)

Click on the following link to view the RAND Corporation document "Improving the Energy Performance of Buildings."

Public school districts, institutions of higher education and corporations can save energy merely by using smart tools to automate energy management policy for IT assets.  That's where IFS and SyAM Software come into the picture...

SyAM Software has the tools to centrally enforce power management policy and automated power schedules, while also offering a whole host of remote system management and monitoring capabilities.

With an increasing demand for electrical energy combined with high cost, heavily burdened electrical distribution grids and little new generation capacity in sight, the only near term solution is IMPROVED POWER MANAGEMENT & CONSERVATION. Energy-consciousness and bottom-line profitability go hand-in-hand. It is a proven fact that desktop PC’s wastefully consume energy and money when powered up during off-business hours. IFS understands that energy efficiency and load management investments are currently (or will soon be) made by businesses that are concerned about the future cost of electricity, as well as the shortage conditions that have affected many markets across the United States in recent years. We believe that our SyAM Power Management solution can have a major impact in assisting business clients with energy conservation and cost reduction practices that will pay dividends for years to come, especially when considering that energy costs are likely to continue to increase, not decrease.

The type of machine and its peripherals (notebook vs. desktop, LCD vs. CRT, etc.), the type of PC usage (on the internet vs. off-line, heavy use - all drives spinning, processor-intensive tasks vs. light use – email, word processing, etc.), as well as the use of Time-Out Settings (ready for use vs. sleep/hibernation mode, screen saver vs. monitor off, etc.) are all factors that affect energy use. It is with this understanding that the SyAM Power Management time-out and scheduler capabilities allow for the reduction in power consumption throughout the workday (via the effective management of Timeout Settings) when the systems are inactive, and more importantly the ability to gracefully power off non-critical systems when not required, both at the end of each workday and on weekends. It should also be pointed out that, although not controlled by the SyAM Power Management tool, other ancillary savings related to reduced cooling costs can also be recognized as a result of reduced heat generated by the PC’s during off hours when these systems are not in use and shut down.  Click here to view article about SyAM Power Management at Connecticut Regional School District 12.

In order to accomplish this feat, Power Management can be configured individually for each Desktop, Notebook or Server utilizing SyAM’s s Central Management interface. It should also be noted that SyAM Software will soon be supporting Group Action and Power Policies that will enable clients to group and categorize systems by location, function, etc. which will further simplify the Time-Out and Shutdown settings. Once configured, the Power Management agent will store all settings and will perform the power functions with no user or administrator intervention required.

When calculating the amount of electricity a Personal Computer will consume, IFS utilizes the following formula:

(Wattage x Hours Used Per Day) / 1000 = Daily Kilowatt-hour (kWh) consumption and Daily Kilowatt-hour (kWh) consumption x Cost per Kilowatt-hour = Total Cost

Therefore;

Published US Department of Energy information:

Computers:

• A typical Desktop computer uses about 120 Watts
• A typical Laptop computer uses about 50 Watts
• Sleep / Stand-by mode reduces consumption to approximately 30 Watts
• A Desktop or Laptop turned off uses 0 Watts
• There is no savings for the computer when Screen Saver is activated

Monitors:

• A typical 17” CRT uses about 150 Watts
• A typical 17” LCD uses about 75 Watts
• There is no savings when the Screen Saver is on but there is any image on screen
• Sleeping Monitor (dark screen) reduces consumption to about 15 Watts
• Monitor Turned Off uses 0 Watts

For illustration purposes, let’s perform a conservative estimate of the savings that a business with 300 PC Workstations that are eligible for power management scheduling can recognize. We will use Dell Dimension XPS 600’s which have a specification of 142 to 200 Watts, hence a 171 Watts average usage, and each PC has an efficient LCD Monitors that uses 75 Watts each. We will assume that the PC’s will only be turned off for only 10 hours (overnight) each weekday and 48 hours each weekend. We will not take into consideration any additional savings by using Timeout Settings during the workday, nor will be estimate any additional savings that could be gained thru reduced air conditioner use. Finally, let us assume that on average this company is paying $0.14 per kWh.

Using the calculation that was previously identified, and incorporating the use of SyAM’s Power Management to shut the PC’s off for just 10 hours each weekday and 48 hours on weekends, the following savings can be recognized:

The savings are like an annuity as they are certain to occur each year thereafter, as long as active power management through SyAM remains a part of your overall IT infrastructure.

* All potential energy cost savings shown are estimated. Your actual savings may vary. IFS, inc. makes no guarantee of actual cost savings.