Social Responsibility and Sustainability
Social Responsibility and Sustainability

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Power

Information about reducing the amount of power your computer consumes.

Did you know?

  • A PC uses about 50 W of power when running, 2.5 W in sleep mode, and about 1.5 W when switched off (but still plugged in) - you can check those figures yourself - just ask to borrow an electricity monitor from our Department.

  • Default settings are for your screen to switch off after 10 minutes and your PC after 30 minutes. Consider lowering those values. Do not power your PC down, as it may prevent it from downloading necessary updates.

  • There are around 13,000 personal computers in the University network - relatively small efficiency improvements in individual use of single machines will add up to big savings.
  • There is more than just power when thinking about the impact of your PC; consider a second hand PC instead of new one or cascade your old PC when you no longer need it - either internally or externally.

How to set your computer to save power

This takes two minutes and you only need to do it once.

  1. Click the start button on a PC (Win key), or go to spotlight search on a Mac (⌘ + Space key) 
  2. Type "power saver"
  3. Choose the first option - "change power saving settings" or "energy saver".
  4. On a PC, choose the "power saver" mode. On a Mac, reduce the display off time to less than 15 minutes, and tick the "power nap" and "put hard disks to sleep" options.

More resources and materials are available
Set your computer to power saver

 

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