Five PC Power Myths Debunked

snydeq writes "Turning off PCs during periods of inactivity can save companies between $25 and $75 per PC per year, according to Energy Star, savings that can add up quickly for large organizations. Yet most organizations remain behind the times on PC power management, in large part due to common misperceptions about PC power, writes InfoWorld's Ted Samson, who outlines five PC power myths debunked in a recent report from Forrester, ranging from the energy savings of screen savers, to the energy draw of powering up, to the difficulties of issuing patches to systems in lower-power states."

Comments

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[IceCreamGuy]

All through college I left my PC on 24/7, however now that I'm paying the bill I have thermal throttling and the other new power-saving standards all turned on, and I turn everything off (router, modem and all) entirely when I'm not using it. It's odd the way people look at it; at work some users say "Well I never leave it on at night because I know that it makes the computer die quicker" and some people say "Well I never turn it off because I want it to last longer." I think the truth is that modern hardware really can handle both philosophies and it's just a matter of convenience vs. power costs at this point.

Typo? Pshaw!

[ClayJar]

Of the four instances in which watts were referenced (directly or in compound units), three are completely boneheadedly wrong:

Forrester debunks this myth as follows: The average desktop draws 89 watts per hour. If it's left on overnight for 16 hours, it consumes 1.42kW. It's impossible for the power surge that occurs when powering on a PC to rival that figure: "You would be drawing energy at a rate of 17 kWh -- the equivalent of 44 HP DL580 servers at 100 percent utilization. Moreover, the average US wall outlet can only provide 1.8 kW of draw, which is about one-tenth of what the power surge would require."

They should be:

• 89 watts
• 1.42 kWh
• 17 kW
• (1.8 kW is correct.)

You *can't* call it a typo when they are perfectly backward in three out of four incidents. And you can't call it "They just got it backward..." when they got it right once. You must conclude, therefore, that they have almost no grasp whatsoever of units.

Re:The units!

[madbavarian]

Same here. This is the point I stopped reading too. Anybody that thinks that a PC takes 89 watts per hour isn't worth listening to for technical advice. The next line just cemented it for me "If it's left on overnight for 16 hours, it consumes 1.42kW." Aaarrrrg. How did our basic science education go so wrong??? Please tell me that this guy is really a movie reviewer that is sitting in for the technical person as they take the holidays off.