Did you know?
Computers and monitors can account for half of the electricity used in a typical office. A single monitor left
switched on overnight can use the same energy as a laser printer producing 800 A4 printed copies,
- and don’t be fooled by a screensaver – the computer is still working at full power to run this!
There are some 10m office PCs in Britain and 1.8m are regularly left on overnight or all weekend, according to
a recent study on energy wastage. This means that around 1.5 billion kWh of energy is wasted by computers
and monitors being left on – that’s approximately £115million wasted in the UK every year! Convert this into
carbon and we waste around 7000,000 tonnes of carbon because of workers not switching off computers
and monitors in the UK (that’s 10% of the UK climate change levy target)!
How does the work?
The ecobutton™ is an illuminating USB device that acts as a reminder and a prompt for the user to press
the ecobutton™ at every opportunity whenever the computer is going to be left idle. This could be from
taking a phone call or break, to doing paperwork or going to lunch and meetings where otherwise the
computer would normally be left on. This is because people generally do not like turning off their computers
because of the time it often takes to restart.
When the ecobutton™ is pressed it engages the computer into energy saving ‘ecomode’. This ensures
that both the computer and monitor are set to operate in the most effi cient, lowest power mode available,
which actually draws only the same nominal power as when the computer and monitor are turned off!
When you need to use the computer again, simply press any key to instantly return to where you left off!
The savings
The amount of energy that a computer and monitor use varies depending on its age, model, and the
programmes and applications in use. A PC switched on 8 hours a day engaging ‘ecomode’ for 3 hours
could save around £50 in electricity cost per year. If the PC is left on overnight the saving could be £100 or
more - or the equivalent of 600kgs of CO2.
Indirect savings can be made with air conditioning systems as they do not have to work so hard because
less heat is generated from computers actively using the ecobutton™. Because the ecobutton™ stays
illuminated even during ecomode, this can provide a useful reminder that all unnecessary computers, lighting,
heating and air conditioning etc... should be switched off at the end of the day.
The ecobutton™ is RoHS compliant and manufactured from recycled plastic. It is a retrofit device so that it will work on any PC currently running Windows 2000, XP and Vista 32 bit, and regardless of how energy
efficient your IT system may be, the ecobutton™ will contribute to further savings.
With an estimated growth of computer usage of around 40% by 2020, isn’t it about time we all took some
action to deal with this growing problem?
Whether you save a lot or a little, you can be assured that by using ecobutton™ you will be making a difference.
It pays to be green and doesn’t cost the earth.
