[Seac] Fwd: Computer Equipment Power Settings

[Steven Barney <barnes99@uwosh.edu>]

SEAC:

I just want to let you know that, after Bob Poechl posted a note to the SEAC list about the Harvard Green Campus Initiative <http://lists.uwosh.edu/pipermail/seac/Week-of-Mon-20041213/000030.html> <http://www.greencampus.harvard.edu/>, I noticed that the Harvard Energy Reduction Program strongly suggests turning computers off to save power and debunks some common myths about the power usage of idle computers <http://www.greencampus.harvard.edu/CERP/faqs.shtml>. Well, I was aware that the computers in the student computer labs are left on overnight while the labs are closed, so I passed this info on to the Chancellor and the Academic Computing Dept. It now looks like we am getting some good results. See the attached messaga from Laura J. Knaapen, Director of Academic Computing, for some good news.


HIP HIP!,
Steve Barney
Oshkosh, WI

PS: Please join Bob and Jenni's campaign for Oshkosh City Council <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wpjc/>.

--- Begin Message ---

• To: knoke@uwosh.edu, hoyt@uwosh.edu, maye@uwosh.edu, beckc@uwosh.edu
• Subject: Computer Equipment Power Settings
• From: Laura Knaapen <knaapen@uwosh.edu>
• Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 12:06:25 -0600
• Cc: jacklin@uwosh.edu, vandriss@uwosh.edu, berens@uwosh.edu, wright@uwosh.edu, parksm@uwosh.edu, petersed@uwosh.edu, sonnleit@uwosh.edu, barnes99@uwosh.edu
• Priority: normal

Here's the summary of today's meeting on reducing power utilization of campus computer equipment:

1 - Erik and Christian will check on factory default settings for monitors turning themselves off.
2 - Erik will consolidate collected data on active vs. standby power use into a spreadsheet to share with users.
3 - All Windows computers for employee offices being setup or worked on in Tech from this point forward will have the following settings:
       -Screen Saver on at 10 minutes
       -Monitor off at 15 minutes
       -Hard drive off at 1 hour
       -System standby at 1 hour (with no password required on wake)
       -Laptops will have hibernate enabled
4 - All Macintosh computers for employee offices being setup or worked on in Tech from this point forward will have the following settings:
       -Screen Saver on at 10 minutes
       -System standby at 1 hour
5 - Lab changes will affect only those Windows computers that we reimage before the Spring semester which is under review at this time.  The changes will certainly be in effect for ALL lab Windows computers beginning Fall 2005.
       -Screen Saver on at 10 minutes
       -Monitor off at 15 minutes
       -Hard Drive off at 20 minutes
       -System standby at 20 minutes (with no password required on wake)
6 - Linux Lab computers will be modified for the Fall 2005 semester.  Because they are available for off-campus connection, we cannot use standby for these computers.
       -Monitor off at 15 minutes (bios)
       -Hard drive off at 20 minutes (bios)
7 - We will review the option of turning off all lab computers at the end of each day, with the exception of Radford lab, which is open 24 hours, and Halsey Linux Lab, which needs off campus access.  Dan Hoyt will check on ways for us to automate this process.
8 - Dan Hoyt will test the possibility of pushing the power setting changes to all employee computers via system policies.
9 - We will discuss these changes with ACUG (Academic Computer Users' Group) in order to make the campus more aware of the power utilitzation of their computers and printers.
10 - We will send an email to all employees with the power utilization information, encouraging them to turn their computers and printers off at the end of each work day.

Rick and Steve - I just want to include a list of the steps we have taken in the past (for the last 3 years, at least) to save energy, especially in the labs...
A - All Macintosh computers in the labs and classrooms right now are set to go into system standby at 20 minutes.  This reduces power utilization from 46w to 2.3w for each of the 64 iMacs, 168w to 9w for each of the 5 PowerMacs, and from 100w to 6w for each of the 5 eMacs.
B - All monitors in the labs and classrooms are set to turn off at 20 minutes.  This reduces power utilization from approximately 35w to 2w for each LCD monitor and from approximately 64w to 3w for each CRT monitor. 
C - We also have installed LCD/flat panel monitors in four of our five labs over the last 3 years.  Flat panel monitors use about 20% less power than CRT monitors.  We will be replacing the computers and monitors in the 5th lab this summer.
D - All printers in the labs have power saver settings enabled and starting at 15 minutes.  This reduces power utilization from approximately 145w (waiting to print mode) to 40w for each of the 11 HP8000s and from approximately 23w (waiting to print mode) to 13w for each of the 2 HP4300s.  The 8000s operate at about 650w when printing; the 4300s at about 800w when printing.  We will be replacing 3 of the 8000s this summer with 4300s.
E - All computers are turned off during extended closed hours for holidays or semester breaks.

Laura J. Knaapen
Director of Academic Computing
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
800 Algoma Boulevard
Oshkosh, WI  54901
920.424.2368
knaapen@uwosh.edu

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