From: gsager@heliacal.Eng.Sun.COM (Gary Sager)
Subject: Re: Monitors - should they be kept on 24 hours a day???
Organization: Sun Microsystems
Lines: 39
Distribution: world
Reply-To: gsager@heliacal.Eng.Sun.COM
NNTP-Posting-Host: heliacal


>	I wonder how hard it would be (i.e. what it would add to the cost)
>to design desktop machines with a power saver feature built in which would
>reduce power consumption automatically if the machine is idle for more than
>some amount of time.

I believe that Apple, Sun and a number of other desktop machine
manufacturers have agreed with the government to incorporate
power-saving techniques;  this is also something that governments in
other countries are likely to require in the future, so expect to see
it.  This may include the ability for the system to fully power down
the monitor, via a controllable power outlet, and power it back on
automatically.  (Is this a "sell" on screen saver software companies?)

Goals for "idle" power consumption have been set at something like 30
watts for the system, not including the monitor (? don't quote me on
this).

Note that in many businesses, the savings will be substantial,
especially if you factor in reduced load on air conditioning systems.
Sun did a study that indicated that simply powering off monitors for
the night would save the company (Sun itself) on the order of $1M per
year.  Putting other (and automatic) power-saving features in would
probably have greater than double that value.

Given that we are seeing more and more reason to leave our work and
home computers on (getting faxes, automatically getting email, ...),
building power consumption control into all machines has a potential to
cut ~2% off the national power consumption, based on data I heard.

BTW: when encouraging employees to power off monitors when leaving
work, it was pointed out that this should only be done with monitors
with the power switch on front.  There was some indication that
monitors with power switches on the rear are not designed to tolerate
lots of power cycling.  This may only apply to the monitors we use, but
might be worth checking if you happen to have a monitor with the switch
in back.