Want to Save $40 in the Next 10 Minutes? Put Your Computer to Sleep.

Many people don’t take advantage of one of the quickest and cheapest (read: free!) energy-saving tactics around: Activating the power-management settings on their office or home computers.

At the 2010 Energy Design Expo and Conference in Duluth last week, Scott Pigg of the Energy Center of Wisconsin presented findings of a new study he and other researchers conducted that sought energy-saving opportunities in the home. Researchers collected some data by electronically metering activity on about 35 home desktop computers. The study found that 35% of the desktops had long idle periods, 30% were left on around the clock and 15% were not used much at all. Only 20% of the desktops were turned off when not in use.

When 32 of the households were later interviewed by phone, only four indicated they currently had the power-management settings enabled on their computers and nine enabled them during the interview.

The reason few people use these settings may be confusion or not fully understanding the energy- and cost-saving benefits. Power-management settings –- often called “sleep mode” settings –- control when a computer effectively deactivates its internal functions to save energy. When sleep mode settings aren't activated, a computer will stay on and consume a lot of energy until the user manually turns it off. Enabling the power-management settings allows a computer user to automatically have the computer de-power when it has been idle for a certain number of minutes. But unlike shutting down a computer manually, the sleep mode settings put the computer into an energy-savings mode that allows the computer to spring back on with a shake of the mouse.

Keep in mind that sleep mode shouldn’t be confused with screen savers, as screen savers aren’t meant to save energy. Power-management settings can be activated to put both the computer and the monitor into sleep mode after a certain number of idle minutes.

The savings potential for activating your computer’s power-management settings are quite lucrative, especially when you consider how much time computers are left on while idle. Enabling power management settings on a computer that’s typically always left on can save 400 kilowatt hours annually – or roughly $40 a year – the Energy Center of Wisconsin found. Spread that savings across a business that has, say, 10 computers and that’s $400 of savings per year. (You can find a preliminary report of the Energy Center’s study here by clicking on the link that starts "Habits, Adjustments or Acquisitions ...".)

Setting power management settings generally takes three minutes or less. Each operating system is different, but most have a “Power Options” or “Power Management” option in their control panel that lets you set them. Read Energy Smart’s instructions on how to do it.

Do you have the sleep mode settings enabled on your home or work computer? Have you found other ways to save energy in your computer use?