Timer-controlled power to IT suites

Just wondering what other schools do (or are thinking of doing) about powering off IT suites completely? We do power the computers off remotely (beyondexec) but are looking at how to reduce power leaking overnight. I guess I'm looking for some sort of industrial timer switch to sit between the breakers and the sockets, with a schedule, override options, and preferably some sort of audible warning prior to poweroff. Does anyone use something like this at the moment?

I guess you could use a big red button similar to what they have in your design technology rooms I guess - not sure about the audible solution etc.

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Originally Posted by Sylv3r

I guess you could use a big red button similar to what they have in your design technology rooms I guess - not sure about the audible solution etc.

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Thanks for the reply, but not really what I'm looking for.

We've been testing a solution one of our IT rooms. There's a PIR in the room, and after 4pm as soon as the PIR detects there's been no movement for over an hour it breaks the contacts. Absolutely zero power wasted. Obviously there's also the software to shutdown the machines safely before hand.
At 8.30 it reconnects power (or if the PIR detects movement)

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Originally Posted by Biccies

We've been testing a solution one of our IT rooms. There's a PIR in the room, and after 4pm as soon as the PIR detects there's been no movement for over an hour it breaks the contacts. Absolutely zero power wasted. Obviously there's also the software to shutdown the machines safely before hand.
At 8.30 it reconnects power (or if the PIR detects movement)

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Yeah, that's the sort of thing I'm interested in. What sort of timers/management are you using to manage the PIR input and timing? Have you had that setup long, how do you find it? Have you addressed the problem of non-users passing through (cleaners for example). Am I right in understanding that the one-hour timeout doesn't apply during school hours?

We use bat files scheduled to shut all the student and staff systems down at 4:30 with a 10 minute warning and bat files to WOL at 8:30. By having multiple bat files we can change the times in case the systems are needed in some areas and not in others. Best of all it is all free.

You can get timers that will go in the Dis boards on the circuits, they are often used on things like Outside lights that are not on LDRs. Worth talking to your sparky about them and if they are compatible with your load and system.

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Originally Posted by meastaugh1

Yeah, that's the sort of thing I'm interested in. What sort of timers/management are you using to manage the PIR input and timing? Have you had that setup long, how do you find it? Have you addressed the problem of non-users passing through (cleaners for example). Am I right in understanding that the one-hour timeout doesn't apply during school hours?

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I don't know all that much about the system if I'm honest. It's something that was put into one of the rooms in September. If the cleaners came into the room all that would happen is the contact would be reconnected, the computers wouldn't actually turn on obviously. I presume that the contact is then disconnected after a timeout.

We run .bat files to shutdown and WOL the machines here. We use Scheduled Tasks on the server to run the scripts so that the machines shutdown and wake up at the same time every day.

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Originally Posted by Pumaedition

We run .bat files to shutdown and WOL the machines here. We use Scheduled Tasks on the server to run the scripts so that the machines shutdown and wake up at the same time every day.

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We do that too, but I'm looking for solutions that will the computers off completely so they're not unnecessarily drawing power overnight, school holidays etc.