Energy Saving Ideas

[MikeGreen]

Morning All,

 

I was wondering if someone was able to help, we are currently in the process of trying to cut our electricity bill as it is huge (I mean HUGE). We currently use PSShutdown to shut down our workstations over night however this is very unreliable due to various factors. As we run a CC4 network (until the summer) I have tried using the RM Management Console to shut PC's down again this is hit and miss. The school want more than just the PC to shutdown however they want everything PC, monitor, printer, projector, starboard, speakers and so on. I was just wondering what systems/procedures other have in place? I have started to replace our old projectors with energy efficient LED ones. I have started to replace our 10 year old PC's with energy efficient all in ones from VeryPC but we still have hundreds of the 10 year old pc's in use. I have even thought about fitting our staff PC's with SSD drives as in theory these should use less power. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

Edited January 29, 2015 by MikeGreen

[sted]

for printers etc what about those extension leads that when the "primary device" is off (which i assume would work with pc being remotely shutdown) turns the rest of the plugs off?

[MikeGreen]

Thanks sted, I'd never heard of these before to be honest, I have just found some online. That's a great idea, thanks

[Andrew_C]

Those will be a start for IT, but I'd be prepared to bet real money that much bigger savings could be made by insulating the buildings properly, and/or turning the thermostats down by a degree or two. Probably "orders of magnitude" bigger savings.

 

Second to that, turning lights off. Even with fluorescent lighting, a large classroom will be running 5x the power of the teachers' PC in lighting.

[mats]

If the school is trying to save money, they should look at the really big power uses. Like heating (space and water), old lighting systems, insulation and draught proofing. There's little point spending time and money to save a quid or two per pc when the boiler is on all night for instance. When all that's done it's time to start turning printers off at night. IMO. Edited January 29, 2015 by mats
Typo

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

Mike its always a great idea to measure the energy use first. Most councils offer schools free energy IT audits on one scheme or another. This will pinpoint areas that need improvement enabling you to present the data to the SLT and formulate a plan; they even detail a suite of possible solutions which is a bonus. The majority of the energy used by IT can be reduced via simple behavioural change and gamification techniques. Companies like the Global Action Plan will visit your school and give hands on demonstrations to bring everything to light in fun and measurable ways too. Attack this with measurement in mind and everything else will fall into place mate; if you can measure it you can reduce it. I've found that the types of lighting used in schools can significantly reduce energy bills too.

[kennysarmy]

We have been using the software by these guys:

PowerMAN PC Power Management Software for cost and energy savings by Data Synergy

 

PC's shutdown after 10 mins if no one logs on.

Student PC's shutdown after 30 mins of inactivity.

Staff PC's sleep after 20 minutes of inactivity.

 

Works very well to keep energy costs down....

[MikeGreen]

Thanks everyone, We have had an energy audit and our baseline reading overnight is higher that other schools during the day. So all aspects of the school are being looked in to and as IT is my responsibility that it was my attention is to be focused. One of my suggestions, Colin, is to replace the PC's with Very Panels as they are more energy efficient but I cant see me winning that argument (not on a large scale anyway).

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

You can if you can prove the payback. If the old machines use 120 watts which I reckon they may and the new machines only use 30 then that's a £90 a year saving straight away on bills. Plus less noise, less heat, quicker log in speeds and more capable IT resource = winner.

[Norphy]

Regarding printers, I seem to remember a discussion on here a while ago where someone found that they actually used less energy left on standby overnight than they did when switched off then on in the mornings. The startup and warmup routine was apparently the culprit.

 

I don't know if that's true but it's worth investigating.

[sted]

Regarding printers, I seem to remember a discussion on here a while ago where someone found that they actually used less energy left on standby overnight than they did when switched off then on in the mornings. The startup and warmup routine was apparently the culprit.

 

I don't know if that's true but it's worth investigating.

 

presumably that varies wildly by printer and probably isn't true of inkjets

[hardtailstar]

Turning plugs off at night too. I read somewhere that even when devices are plugged in and turned off they still draw a small amount of power.

 

I know this does not help with turning computers back on remotely and the amount may only be a small impact but its what one of my schools do to reduce power.

 

Do you have laptop trolleys? We have one that charges the devices overnight in a set time frame which is much better then our trolley that is constantly on charge.

[localzuk]

Things we've done to reduce power usage:

 

Virtualisation of server farm - reduced physical servers from 12 to 4.

Set aircon at a higher temperature (the room doesn't need to be 19 degrees)

Started switching from laser printers to HP OfficeJet Pro X high speed inkjets

Retired all CRT monitors

Reduced number of printers around site

Set a standby policy for PCs so they go to sleep when not in use for 10 minutes

[Nibiru]

No point starting with the printers when the buildings are so thermally inefficient.

 

My office is freezing first thing in the morning in the winter so I sometimes have 2 heaters on in here. Then when he sun comes round past the adjacent building the temperature rockets and I may have to open a window to get the temperature comfortable again!

 

The problem is the 50 year old buildings & windows..... The windows in the other block were replaced back in 2002 - this block was zoned for the next phase but as usual the money ran out & the project never got any further. Thick blackout style curtains help regulate the temperature to some degree, but I hate working with the curtains shut all the time.

[localzuk]

No point starting with the printers when the buildings are so thermally inefficient.

 

Every little helps.

[Nibiru]

Ever little helps but its going to make little difference over a year when the heating running costs are vastly increased due to the woeful insulation put in when the place was built 50 years ago.

 

I have one of those master power off plugs mentioned earlier for my own office computer so when its switched off the multiple monitors are switched off too. Mine is e-on branded & was free from somewhere a couple of years ago.

[jaf]

What are the factors which stop your shutdown script from running? We use CC4 and the shutdown task runs fine on the vast majority of PCs in the school. The startup task is more hit and miss due to WOL not working on our older PCs. In CC4 you can also set policies for PCs going onto standby, turning HDDs off and turning the monitors off, all after a specified amount of inactivity time. We also have put SSDs in many of our PCs and this does help increase power efficiency.

[Tricky_Dicky]

We are going through a similar thing and have started with a building management system that controls external lighting and hot water boilers. It's a Crestron system, so not cheap at all, but means we can interface to pretty much anything and control it at will.

 

Like I said though, we are only just beginning but it means we can slowly change things and reduce usage in time.

[Andrew_C]

Every little helps.

Actually, it doesn't (sort of). During the winter at least, all the "wasted" electricity in PCs, printers & what have you saves energy, and therefore money, on heating. In the summer, and especially if you have AC, it is "wasted".