Feel Free to Sleep at School...If You're a Computer! *
| Difficulty | |
| Time Required | Long (2-4 weeks) |
| Prerequisites | None |
| Material Availability | Readily available |
| Cost | Very Low (under $20) |
| Safety | No issues |
Abstract
Sleeping in class isn't allowed...unless you're a computer! In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggests that putting your school's computers to sleep when they're not in use might reduce a school's energy bill significantly. In a study done at the North Thurston public schools in Olympia, Washington, EPA officials worked with the district to cut computer energy and costs by approximately $45,000 annually! How? By implementing a variety of power-management strategies for the district's 4,000 computers. The EPA defines power management as a series of features available on current Windows and Mac operating systems that "place monitors and computers (CPU's, hard drives, etc.) into a low-power 'sleep mode' after a period of inactivity. Simply touching the mouse or keyboard 'wakes' the computer and monitor in seconds."Would implementing power management at your school save energy and money? How much? What power-management settings would be best for your school? Are there any down sides to the various power-management settings? Do some background reading about power management, then gather the information you need, like the number of computers in your school and when they're used, and try the free calculators in the Bibliography to estimate energy and cost savings. How similar are the estimates from the various calculators? Is it worth trying power management at your school? Can you convince your school administrators, based on the results from the calculators? If your school does switch to power management, see if you can determine how accurate the calculator estimates were. One rough estimate would be to ask school administrators if they can help you compare energy usage between this year and the year before. Note: Make sure you're comparing the same months, as energy usage often fluctuates with seasons, too.
Credits
Sandra Slutz, PhD, Science Buddies
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Last edit date: 2012-12-07
Bibliography
The details of the North Thurston Public School District case study can be found here:
- Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). North Thurston Public Schools Will Save $45,000 by Putting Computers To Sleep. Retrieved August 5, 2010, from http://www.energystar.gov/ia/products/power_mgt/North_Thurston_Case_Study.pdf
An overview of what power management is can be found at:
- Energy Star. (n.d.). General Technical Overview of Power Management. Retrieved August 5, 2010, from http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=power_mgt.pr_power_management
This resource contains a list of freely available energy calculators and applications for deciding if power management makes sense and how to implement it:
- Climate Savers Computer Initiative. (2009). Climate Savers Computing: Tools. Retrieved August 5, 2010, from http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/tools/applications/
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