Myths abound in the world of office technology: how turning computers on and off shortens their life, how screensavers can save the world, the photographic limits of a copy machine, and how IT department performance is linked to vending machine sales of Jolt.

However, the reality is that a few easy steps can set up the automatic power savings options on your computer. You have the power to be energy efficient.

Unfortunately, until Vista appeared on the scene, Windows came out of the box with its automatic power management tools turned off, and many users didn't realize that left that way they were losing money and adding to greenhouse gas emissions.

But the benefits of a little computer sleep are clear: when researchers activated the power management functions on 75,000 computers and monitors at General Electric, the company pocketed $2.5 million in annual savings. A simple change of preferences freed enough power for 23,000 homes. The world's major software provider still hasn't patched its old systems, but the new Vista operating system is more savvy. According to calculations by leading environmental group NRDC, if the 50 million computers left running in households and offices ran Vista, it would be the carbon-saving equivalent of taking 380,000 cars off the road. The individual savings can vary from a few dollars a year up to hundreds of dollars for higher power computers, leading to upwards of 1,000 pounds of CO2. This adds add up, especially in large offices. If your IT department resists for inscrutable technical reasons, point them toward Surveyor and cc your CFO about that $2.5 million savings at GE. Even if your IT department is your daughter and your CFO is your wife, there are compelling reasons for each of you to act.

A final note: Even powered down, a computer draws a small amount of power. For maximum savings shut down and flip the switch on your power strip -- new computers can handle 40,000 power cycles. It even makes sense to do this for just an hour at lunch.

Wondering what the steps are to make your PC more efficient and your company better off?

  • Two good options are to allow your computer to hibernate or go into standby mode rather than leaving the computer on when you're away and to turn your monitor off when you're away.
  • When your computer is on, standby powers down components not in use, but the computer stays on and can reactivate in seconds. Hibernation saves your desktop, including all open files, and then powers down all hardware. When you wake the computer up from hibernation, everything is restored to the state it was when you left it. The start-up time is longer than for standby but shorter than starting your computer when it's been turned off. Hibernate is a lower energy state than standby because all of the hardware is off. You can standby or hibernate from the "Shut Down" menu, which offers buttons for "Stand By", "Turn Off", or "Restart". Press the Shift key, and "Stand By" changes to "Hibernate". In XP you can activate hibernation through Control Panel adjustments when you are logged on as an administrator, or if you're a member of either the Administrators or Power Users group. Some networks may not permit you to do this. Note: Always save open files and try hibernating manually from the "Shut Down" menu before changing Control Panel options to make hibernation automatic, because some hardware configurations have had problems with hibernation. Also, consider whether you access your computer files remotely when you're away. If so, hibernate is not a good automatic setting for you.

To set your computer to automatically hibernate:

    1. Open the Power Options Control Panel. (Click Start, Control Panel, then double-click Power Options.)
    2. Click on the Hibernate tab, check the "Enable hibernate support" box, and click Apply. (If this tab is unavailable, your computer can't do it.)
    3. Click on the APM tab, choose "Enable Advanced Power Management support" and then click Apply. (On some computers Advanced Power Management is automatic, so this tab is unavailable.)
    4. Click on the Power Schemes tab, then set how long before your system hibernates. (Vista's default setting is an hour. You can use this as your setting or change it to match your needs.)

To set your monitor to automatically sleep:

    1. Right-click the desktop, then click Properties.
    2. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Screen Saver tab. Click the Power button next to the ENERGY STAR symbol.
    3. Now you're looking at the Power Options Properties dialog box. You should be in the first tab, Power Schemes. Click the Turn off monitor list, and the time for monitor sleep to 5 minutes. If this is a laptop, set times for both 'Plugged in' and 'Running on batteries.'
    4. Double click 'OK'.
    5. To wake your monitor, just move your mouse, or press a key.

What about Apple?

    Macs come set to an energy-saving default. To tweak your settings choose "Energy Saver" in "System Preferences" where you can set times for sleeping both the display and the entire system. To schedule automatic shut downs and start ups, click the schedule button on this pane. Click "Options" to explore other power management tweaks.