Power down your IT for the weekend, help a wounded warrior

By | August 19, 2010, 6:45am PDT

Summary: Here’s something easy for your to-do list on Friday, August 27: Pledge to shut down your computer, monitor and printer as part of Power IT Down day. Not only could you save some power for you or your organization, but you could help inspire a $45,000 donation to the Wounded Warrior Project by Citrix, Hewlett-Packard, [...]

Here’s something easy for your to-do list on Friday, August 27: Pledge to shut down your computer, monitor and printer as part of Power IT Down day. Not only could you save some power for you or your organization, but you could help inspire a $45,000 donation to the Wounded Warrior Project by Citrix, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and public sector technology integrator GTSI.

The estimated energy savings for shutting down your computer, monitor and printer at the end of each day is about 13 kilowatt hours per person overnight. But since this particular shut-down day falls on a Friday and the equipment will be off all weekend, Citrix public sector executive Tom Simmons figures that the savings will be more like 55 kilowatt hours per person for the entire weekend.

This is the third annual Power IT down day, and the group’s goal is to inspire 6,100 people to shut down their personal computers. Right now, close to 3,300 people have registered. Last year, the total participants were about 5,600 (the goal was 5,000).

The effort started as a public sector project, Simmons says, because Washington, D.C., tends to be darn hot in August. But you don’t have to be a government employee to sign up: ANYONE can register. It goes without saying that the ultimate goal is to get people thinking about doing this EVERY day.

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Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.

Disclosure

Heather Clancy

Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I am also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I am covering in my blog.

Biography

Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In a past corporate life, Heather was editor of Computer Reseller News, where she was a featured speaker about everything from software as a service to IT security to mobile computing.

Heather started her journalism life as a business writer with United Press International in New York. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and has a thing for Lewis Carroll.

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good idea about printers
gavin.chan 2nd Oct
Thanks for your sharing. Hi, do you want to buy hp toner cartridges? Here you can find laserjet cartridges, printer toner cartridges, laser toner cartridges, hp laser toner cartridges and laser printer toner cartridges wholesale online.oIlmE
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Unlikely
wolf_z 19th Aug 2010
55 kw hours? Really? Even when the monitor, computer, etc are *asleep*?

Something smells rotten here...
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13kwh overnight?
JohnMcGrew@... 20th Aug 2010
Wow! What kind of computer is he using?
I used about 6 kws per day at my house, how could my computer use more just by itself?
If my computer used 55kwh every 2 days when it was idle, I would be flat broke. Let's say an idle computer uses 200watts (a bit high probably). That's .2kw *24 hours = 4.88kwh/day
I guess being an award winning business journalist means you don't have to check your sources anymore :P
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Perhaps there's a decimal point missing. 1.3kw and 5.5 kw might be what is meant as that sounds a bit more realistic if monitors and printers are also included.

For businesses interested in participating, Verismic are also offering free use of their hosted PC Power Management Solution so this can be monitored and enforced centrally allowing the business to see just how much difference was made. Take a look at hosted on http://www.verismic.com and just sign up for the hosted eval quoting 'PowerITDown'.
13 kWh per person for the night???? 55kWh for the weekend???

What hat did she pull those numbers out of???

I tell you this Heather, when I am not using the computer, not only do I completely power down the computer; I PULL THE PLUG. Living in the lightning capital of the US, I do not need to have a lightning surge waste my machine.

A broken circuit means no circuit.
Today people have multiple devices of varying ages at home and at work, which is the basis for the average consumption calculation that is currently used by this program. But the larger picture is about the goals at the heart of Power IT Down Day:

1. Harness the power of the individual. He or she can help governments, businesses and peers reduce their environmental footprint and save money by turning off IT devices when they are not needed.

2. Build awareness and generate funding for our wounded warriors via Wounded Warrior Project.
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good idea about printers
gavin.chan 2nd Oct
Thanks for your sharing. Hi, do you want to buy hp toner cartridges? Here you can find laserjet cartridges, printer toner cartridges, laser toner cartridges, hp laser toner cartridges and laser printer toner cartridges wholesale online.oIlmE

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