PwrSmart Powersmart power management cloud service energy cost savings

The Staggering Wasted Energy Numbers

The data and energy costs associated with failing to recognise and address PC power management are staggering:

Nearly 110 million U.S. workers use a PC regularly to do their jobs, yet only 36-50% of employees (sometimes) shut down their PCs at the end of the day.
<Source: PC Energy Report 2009, U.S. EPA>

The average PC left on all day and night consumes more than 700 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year – more than the average refrigerator – and wastes almost 400 kWh when running at full power when not in use.
<Source: U.S. EPA>

*NOTE* In the UK, in August 2011 energy prices ranged from £0.10p-£0.21p per kWh, depending on usage, location and tariff
(Source ukpower.co.uk).

The average desktop PC wastes half of the energy it consumes as heat, resulting in higher electricity bills for air-conditioning, and increased greenhouse gas emissions.
<Source: Climate Savers Computing Consortium>

PC energy costs are the largest single contributor to overall IT energy costs and can account for a quarter of the costs in a modern office building – ranking just behind heating/cooling systems and lighting.
<Source: Gartner, New Boundary research>

U.S. companies alone, waste anywhere between $2.8 and $4.0 billion annually and emit 20 million tons of carbon dioxide to power PCs that aren’t shut down.
<Source: PC Energy Report 2009, U.S. Dept. of Energy>

IT Energy Consumption

IT energy usage is rising by as much as 15% annually according to industry estimates.

As organisations continue to add more hardware, devices and peripherals to the power grid, it will only become more of a business imperative to cut energy usage and reduce costs through simple means such as PC power management.

If the cost savings benefits alone aren’t enough motivation, numerous local and national governments are establishing energy efficiency regulations that require organisations to adopt “green IT” initiatives to effect carbon emission reduction.

Where do PwrSmart get their figures from?

In their documents and the calculator to the right, PwrSmart are using calculation figures publicly available from the US EPA, PC Energy Report 2009, Gartner and the EnergyStar program.

The actual figures used to calculate likely savings are taken from the EnergyStar Power Management Savings Calculator - available as a downloadable Excel spreadsheet here.

Of course to show your energy use and savings, you can customise all the standard figures to match your environment. For example, as a standard Softek use high performance add-in graphics cards, and dual-monitors - so we have to increase the value of our "average" PC energy consumption wattage.