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Why it's still vital to switch it off

Posted on 19 Sep 2007 at 17:16

The power consumption of IT equipment is rocketing, so PC Pro is relaunching its campaign to get Britain to pull the plug on idle PCs and gadgets.

Click here to get your free Switch IT Off stickers and wallpapers

Two years ago, before global warming became a national obsession, PC Pro launched a campaign urging people to save both energy and money by switching off their IT equipment. In the meantime, we've seen newspaper front pages screaming environmental Armageddon, politicians pontificating about carbon footprints and worldwide rock concerts drawing attention to the environmental crisis.

What difference has this made to people's attitudes towards energy conservation? Not nearly enough. A recent survey commissioned by the Green Technology Initiative found that only a third of companies switched off "most" of their IT equipment overnight; a fifth openly admitted to having "no idea" how many of their PCs, printers and other energy gobblers were switched off when everyone had gone home.

While attitudes might not be changing rapidly, the energy consumption of everyday technology most certainly has - and not for the better. The power consumption of high-end PCs is spiralling. Devices such as wireless routers and media streamers, which were far from common even two years ago, are now routinely left on day and night in many homes; and the list of devices that quietly drain power on standby grows ever longer. Our appetite for IT equipment is so rapacious that the Energy Saving Trust estimates PCs, flatscreen TVs and other gadgets will swallow nearly half a household's total electricity by 2020.

That's why we've decided to relaunch our Switch IT Off campaign. Last time, we distributed more than 20,000 Switch IT off stickers, which were affixed to PCs, monitors and printers in homes and offices across the country, reminding their owners to press the power switch after they'd finished using their equipment. This time, we're upping our game: we're not only repeating our sticker offer but producing PC wallpapers that IT managers can install on office PCs, providing a constant reminder to turn off the system at the end of the day. Still not convinced that all this is necessary? Read on.

Growing energy demands

Although almost every new processor claims to be more energy efficient than the last, the average PC's power requirements continue to soar. When we last ran Switch IT Off, we were bemoaning the fact that a high-end rig would come fitted with a 450W power supply unit (PSU). Nowadays, that bar has been raised to 1,000W.

That doesn't mean the PC will be constantly chomping through 1,000W - that's the absolute theoretical maximum the PSU can churn out when required - but it illustrates how much electricity modern multicore processors, powerful GPUs and ever-expanding hard disks actually require when running at full pelt. And that's before we've even started talking about the screen.

Even when idle, a mid-range PC consumes around 175W. That's enough to charge more than 85 mobile phones. Multiply that figure by the hundreds of PCs left on overnight in your average office block, and the wasted energy is staggering. The PC doesn't even need to be switched on to bump up the electricity bill. Simply leaving the computer plugged in will trickle away as much as 3W of power.

The average PC's ever-increasing hunger has prompted environmental bodies to act. This summer, the Energy Star group has introduced a strict new specification for PC and notebook manufacturers who want to display the organisation's emblem on their machines. For the first time, PCs must meet criteria across three power states: idle (on), sleep and standby (off). A top-of-the-range desktop PC will have to consume no more than 95W in idle mode, no more than 4W in sleep and 2W or less on standby. For laptops, those requirements drop to 22W, 1.7W and 1W respectively.