Computer energy consumption explored

By: Rainier Ramirez

Posted: 3/7/07

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library has more than 200 computers, and many of them are not turned off overnight and are continuously using energy, said Tim Dorais, a student information technology technician in the library.

Similarly, other computer labs around campus leave computers on all day, whether or not they are being used.

"They leave computers on for maintenance," Dorais said. "They are doing anti-spyware and updating databases. Computers have a sleep mode, so if they are not being used, they will turn off features like the hard drive to save energy."

According to energystar.gov, the total annual energy consumption for a typical commercial desktop is 354 kilowatt-hours and being left on in an idle state accounts for 90 percent of that number. Comparatively, a typical household uses several hundred kilowatt-hours a month.

Amie Frisch, director of the environmental resource center, believes that computers on campus should be turned off at night to conserve energy.

"It would save a lot if you just turn it off," Frisch said. "If they have to do overnight maintenance, then they could just maybe do it once or twice a week instead of every night. They use less in standby mode, but it still adds up to a lot of energy."

The computers in the first floor of Clark Hall are on overnight, said Steve Sloan, an information technology consultant and lecturer in the school of journalism and mass communications.

Sloan said the computers in Clark Hall do automatic software updates overnight and renew the operating space.

"People would install stuff on computers and it would pick up viruses," Sloan said. "If we just updated once a week, like on Friday, a new virus on Saturday would wreak havoc on the lab."

Computers are turned off at night in the A.S. computer lab, said Harapreet Singh, a senior office assistant in that computer lab.

"They are not being used," Singh said. "We need to conserve energy. For other computer labs it depends on each of their needs ¬- people might leave UNIX systems on for remote access. They probably leave it on to avoid long load times - whatever is convenient for users."

Tony Syl, a mechanical engineering graduate student, said computers are left on because people go in and out of the lab all day.

"Someone is going to walk in and use them in a hurry," Syl said, while standing outside a computer lab in the Engineering building. "I'm pretty sure they turn them off at night because it would be a waste."

Tony Valenzuela, the associate vice president of Facilities Development and Operations, said turning computers off at night would help conserve energy, but there are other important things to watch for.

"Really the biggest thing that would help the most is to turn the lights off, closing doors and closing windows," Valenzuela said.

Newer computers and monitors are much more energy efficient than in the past, he said. Light bulbs in old buildings have been replaced with brighter and more energy efficient bulbs.

"We are very aggressive investing in the infrastructure to save energy on an ongoing basis," Valenzuela said.