staff, Saving energy
Saving Energy
Saving energy can help protect the environment and reduce costs. Everyone can help to save energy at NUI Galway by reducing the amount of power your office computer consumes. The energy consumption measured in
watts for a typical 2006 model Dell computer is available
online. There are in excess of 4,500 PCs at NUI Galway and it is possible to make significant energy savings by managing the power consumption on these systems.
Recommendations
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Switch off your computer and monitor
When you are finished work, manually shutdown your computer and monitor and turn off power at the main switch for maximum energy savings.
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Re-configure Windows Power Options
The Windows Power Options Properties can be used to automatically manage and configure the energy saving settings for your computer using the settings shown in the table below.
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Settings
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Desktop Computer
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Laptop (Max Battery)
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Turn off monitor:
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10 minutes
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10 minutes
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Turn off hard disks:
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15 minutes
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15 minutes
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System standby:
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30 minutes
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20 minutes
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System hibernates:
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1 hour
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30 minutes
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When your computer is in standby or hibernating in low power sleep mode energy consumption is very low as shown in the
Energy Consumption & Environmental Data table
Instructions to re-configure Windows Power Options
Windows XP
Windows 2000
Macintosh
Linux
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Consider energy efficiency when buying a new computer
- Check the computer datasheet to see what standards the computer you want to buy conforms to and select an energy efficient model
- The European Commission offers detailed information about the
ENERGY STAR eco-label as well as the power consumption of modern office computers
- The
Energy Star database contains information on the power consumption of computers as well as an
energy calculator
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Switch off printers
It is recommended that all non-essential printers in staff offices and departments at NUI Galway are switched off if they are to be inactive for an extended period.
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Printer Power Save/Sleep Mode
Significant energy savings can be made by setting a printer to Sleep Mode after a period of inactivity without affecting performance.
Sleep Mode does not affect printer warm-up time unless the printer was in Sleep Mode for more than 8 hours.
For the most common printer models used in the PC Suites, Sleep Mode is turned on with a Sleep Delay of 30 minutes. The Sleep Delay options are 1 min, 15 mins, 30 mins (default), 60 mins, 90 mins, 2 hours or 4 hours.
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How to set Printer Power Save/Sleep Mode
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Instructions for the HP4250 printer model
- For other printer models, please review Power Save/Sleep mode settings in your printer documentation.