The University can reduce the amount of carbon it generates and save approximately a quarter of a million pounds every year simply by changing the power settings on University managed personal computers.

A review of PC energy usage by Information Services and Estates and Commercial Services, has shown that the number of computers that are powered up never drops below 2,200 PCs. To put that in context, Information Services supports more than 10,000 University desk-top PCs running with a variety of systems and set-ups. Figures from Information Services indicate that 2,200 PCs running 24 hours a day cost £35,728 a month to run. Annually this is adds up to £514,483.20. In terms of carbon reduction, the team estimate the savings to be ~1000 ton CO2e per annum. To put that into context, the new CHP/district heating scheme is currently saving us ~5000 ton CO2e per annum.

I hope the entire University community will go on supporting this type of initiative.  Ann Allen, Executive Director, Estates & Commercial Services

There is an easy, low impact way to get these machines to sleep for at least half the time, saving the University £250,000 a year. We already do this in student PC clusters. Considering the working day is probably around 8 hours, if PCs could be made to sleep for 16 hours, which is being predicted to be the average, the savings would be even higher.

Director of IT Services, Mark Johnston, said: “IT Services with Estates and Commercial Services have been looking at numerous ways to reduce our carbon footprint and energy costs and feel this is a simple and low impact way for us all to make a significant saving for the University. Shutting down your PC at the end of the day and restarting the next day ensures that security patches are applied in a timely fashion, and would also help with energy savings. Of course, there is the balance of impact to your ongoing work, but that should not mean the computer has to be consuming energy while you are not using it, and this is why sleep mode is being rolled out".

Executive Director of Estates and Commercial Services, Ann Allen. said: “The University has made great progress in reducing our carbon footprint in recent years and this is another great initiative. Teams in IT and Commercial services have worked together to identify the opportunity and then develop a plan whereby we can take action. I hope the entire University community will go on supporting this type of initiative and spotting other ways we can create a truly sustainable campus for the future.”

Here’s what will happen…

To reduce this energy waste, from week beginning 19 February 2018 changes will be made to the settings on your managed PC which control how power is saved but only when you don’t need the machine to be switched on. The change will happen automatically, you do not have to do anything.

Here’s how it is done…

Currently your screen will power down after a few minutes if you are not using the PC. Modern PC’s support a similar power saving function for the rest of the computer called “sleep” which allows the computer to go into a very low power state (less than 5 watts ) whilst retaining the state of your programs. Computers in sleep mode can be woken up very quickly (less than 3 seconds typically) and after the usual entry of your username and password the desktop returns to the same state it was in before sleep.

To activate sleep, the power settings will be modified so that after 15 minutes of inactivity (i.e. no mouse movements or button presses, and/or no active video on the screen) the machine will go into sleep mode. These 'sleep' settings will be re-configurable should you have a business reason to keep you PC on.

Most users will not be able to tell the difference, as the process is very fast and we already ask you to login to your workstation again if you have been away for any time.

These new settings will begin to take effect from week beginning 19 February 2018.

 

First published: 6 February 2018

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