Overnight turn off?

[FN-GM]

We were given (by a geography teacher) a bunch of Eon multi-plugs that you put the PC in the top, and up to two monitors in the two sockets on the sides, and when the PC turns off, it turns off power to the monitors. Not sure if they're likely to save much money, but could be an option for projectors if you run power to the same socket for example to force them off.....not sure how old they are, don't know where he got them from, but i need to make sure they're individually fused before we use them. All our staff PCs have two monitors, not sure how much we'd save if they were all fully powered off every night.

 

Also using EMCO remote shutdown, really handy tool.

 

Projectors generally cool off after being used. Could this damage the projector if the power is being pulled too early?

[mrbios]

Projectors generally cool off after being used. Could this damage the projector if the power is being pulled too early?

 

That is a worry. My predecessor went around putting manual timer plugs on all the projectors because of people leaving them on. Needless to say, they were all thrown out pretty quickly when he left...besides the cool down period, it was also a constant problem with the time being wrong on them lol

 

I would imagine that if it was an automated power off of the PC, rather than user power off, it would only be turning them off in the instance that they're left on by mistake, so the frequency of them being forced off like that would be minimal. Whether it does more damage to the bulb vs the bulb being cooled properly though is impossible to know....might be that the savings on energy are negated by bulb replacement costs down the line lol.

 

I am trying to think of circumstances where they might be useful besides powering off monitors that are on standby, but i can't really come up with anything feasible.... guess i could use it in my CAD room to power off the lasercutters if they're left on perhaps.

[FN-GM]

I have seen automatic power on and off times in projectors. We have one at work for a museum we have (never thought I would say that). Might be worth looking for that feature to see if they have it? If so - you could configure them to turn off at 5pm or something.

[mavhc]

Why aren't the projectors turning off when they have no signal? Or why are they still getting a signal at night?

[Andrew_C]

As I wrote above - if there is a switch or amplifier in the system, they may see that as a valid input. A few of the ones here do; not all, which is bizarre.

[enjay]

Projectors generally cool off after being used. Could this damage the projector if the power is being pulled too early?

 

But they're not drawing power while they're cooling down. I tell people to be careful with moving portable projectors just after turning them off, but you can unplug them straight away (can't you?)

[enjay]

I'd argue that the TCO saving on a desktop is likely to be greater than the energy saving of a laptop.

 

Now you're starting the common ethical dilemma of "choose your principles". Your point-of-use electrical consumption will be lower with a laptop, but you can replace a desktop while keeping the same monitor, reducing the environmental impact of the manufacturing process.

[Andrew_C]

you can unplug them straight away (can't you?)

Depends. They all needed cool down time a while back, but changes in lamp tech could have reduced this requirement.

[Rob_D]

But they're not drawing power while they're cooling down. I tell people to be careful with moving portable projectors just after turning them off, but you can unplug them straight away (can't you?)

The Epsons we have continue to run the fans for a bit after the bulb turns off as part of their shutdown (maybe 30 seconds on the newer ones, and up to a couple of minutes on the older EBx10/11 ones)

[FN-GM]

But they're not drawing power while they're cooling down. I tell people to be careful with moving portable projectors just after turning them off, but you can unplug them straight away (can't you?)

 

Loads of them do because there is a fan going some time after being turned "off".

[enjay]

The Epsons we have continue to run the fans for a bit after the bulb turns off as part of their shutdown (maybe 30 seconds on the newer ones, and up to a couple of minutes on the older EBx10/11 ones)

 

Ah okay, none of ours do that.

[mavhc]

LED vs incandescent bulb?

[jthompson]

The other advantage of running laptops rather than desktops is that a decent number of them are likely to be using people's home energy as stored in the battery, rather than the school's energy, necessarily. In a 1:1 scenario, an expectation that pupils bring their devices in with enough juice for the day will save the school a decent amount over running rooms of desktops.

[mavhc]

Main advantage is laptops are usually way more power efficient.

 

"Primary schools in the UK typically consume 119kWh/m²/year of energy"

 

1 classroom is 70m^2, so each classroom averages 1kw, but is only used 17% of the time (8 hours per 190 days), so that's 5.75kW.

 

Laptop is max 100Wh, and probably more like 50, so that's 1.5kWh for 30 children, out of the 46kW the classroom uses in 8 hours. 3% of total.

 

Laptop might use 6W when idle, whereas a desktop is more like 25W

 

Mostly importantly, gather actual data, get a watt meter.

[mikeprice]

Main advantage is laptops are usually way more power efficient.

 

"Primary schools in the UK typically consume 119kWh/m²/year of energy"

 

1 classroom is 70m^2, so each classroom averages 1kw, but is only used 17% of the time (8 hours per 190 days), so that's 5.75kW.

 

Laptop is max 100Wh, and probably more like 50, so that's 1.5kWh for 30 children, out of the 46kW the classroom uses in 8 hours. 3% of total.

 

Laptop might use 6W when idle, whereas a desktop is more like 25W

 

Mostly importantly, gather actual data, get a watt meter.

 

Yes - but watt meter should I use????

 

(OK should be which - or witch - but the 'joke' dosesn;t work then)

 

 

 

EDIT - actually anyone know of one that connects to a computer (or some kind) and shows the usage over time in some way??

Tested power usage once by connecting a watt meter and having a webcam pointed at it - then going forward x minutes and typing the readings into Excel

but there has to be an easier way than that!

Edited December 13, 2022 by mikeprice

[southhamster]

Yes - but watt meter should I use????

 

(OK should be which - or witch - but the 'joke' dosesn;t work then)

 

 

 

EDIT - actually anyone know of one that connects to a computer (or some kind) and shows the usage over time in some way??

Tested power usage once by connecting a watt meter and having a webcam pointed at it - then going forward x minutes and typing the readings into Excel

but there has to be an easier way than that!

Something like this?

Had mine for ages and it works reliably. - I think there's a newer version.

Just been using mine to measure how much power our ancient oil fired boiler uses (230 Watts on c/h firing as I'm sure you really wanted to know!)

A bit fiddly, the cable hangs down in front of the display and it needs batteries to work

[mavhc]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08YK8G225?linkCode=xm2&th=1 possibly, not used it

[jthompson]

I keep meaning to look into this a lot more, a feel as though a suitable smart plug (something like this maybe - https://www.mylocalbytes.com/products/smart-plug-pm) that can provide wireless telemetry over MQTT might be the ticket. Perhaps a Raspberry Pi of some sort secreted within range to serve as a monitoring node.

[dmj]

I keep meaning to look into this a lot more, a feel as though a suitable smart plug (something like this maybe - https://www.mylocalbytes.com/products/smart-plug-pm) that can provide wireless telemetry over MQTT might be the ticket. Perhaps a Raspberry Pi of some sort secreted within range to serve as a monitoring node.

 

Home assistant would integrate nicely with this: https://www.home-assistant.io/

[jthompson]

Home assistant would integrate nicely with this: https://www.home-assistant.io/

 

Ooh, yeah. This thread on their foums looks promising:

What are the best UK plugs with energy monitoring?

[LeMarchand]

Ooh, yeah. This thread on their foums looks promising:

What are the best UK plugs with energy monitoring?

 

Wish I'd seen this plug discussion before buying a non-connected one earlier in the week!

[enjay]

Yes - but watt meter should I use????

 

(OK should be which - or witch - but the 'joke' dosesn;t work then)

 

 

 

EDIT - actually anyone know of one that connects to a computer (or some kind) and shows the usage over time in some way??

Tested power usage once by connecting a watt meter and having a webcam pointed at it - then going forward x minutes and typing the readings into Excel

but there has to be an easier way than that!

 

I've got one of https://alexnld.com/product/ts-1500-professional-digital-lcd-electric-power-energy-meter-voltage-wattage-current-monitor-eu-us-uk-plug/ (except the UK plug version, obviously!). That gives you current consumption and total consumption since you last unplugged it.

[karenf]

Impero on timed shutdown at 6pm here too

[gaz350b]

These are my numbers from my reader.

 

I was surprised how little our desktops consumed (they are mostly laptop cpus).

20 watt idle and peaking just over 30w under full load. (These are 4th gen intel)

 

2014 dell 24 inch uses 12.4 at 60% and are significantly lower brightest at their older age.

100% they use 19w. (0.1 on standby)

 

desktop example that use a modern desktop cpu(i5-9500) consume exactly the same as the older intel laptop CPU’s we are running.

 

Kyocera 4052 MFP: 200w idle, 47w sleep (sleep mode 1 minute) 4w in low energy mode. These are set to go low energy mode after 4 minutes and are ready to print by the time a user has logged in and pressed print.

 

So my advice don’t bother with timer plugs if it’s a modern device and energy settings are setup correctly.

Edited December 16, 2022 by gaz350b

[ITGURU]

Nightly shutdown is a savior on many reasons. We had a ransomware attack, only affected servers as every client was off overnight! saved us reimaging over 2000 machines.