@SmallBizCIO:
A blog aimed at the SMB, written by a long time IT enthusiast turned IT professional.

"Jack of all trades, master of none,
Certainly better than a master of one"

These are my personal opinions.

  1.  

    The hidden costs of PCs and how to reduce them.

    Have you ever considered the cost of computers being left on? It is a subject that rarely gets touched but the figures are just staggering. In a world that is becoming more and more aware of green efforts, the calculations are often made on a large scale - referring to environmental impact.

    But let’s bring it a bit closer to home and apply this to the cost of running your business.

    My attention got pulled today to the following video by Nigel Upchurch:

    “A ‘Value PC’ with 17” LCD monitor, left on all year uses 304.2 kWh more than the same computer turned on for 45 hours a week”

    OK, now lets day you pay 15 cents per kWh. The statement above shows an additional cost of $45.63 per year, per computer. If you have 10 computers, do the math. It may not seems like much, but it is money that is thrown away.

    There are also the variables of the type of PC, the size of the monitor and even the type of monitor - It’s really time to get rid of those old CRT’s, they use more then 3 times the power of a modern LCD…

    Sleep mode

    Enabling sleep mode or standby when computers they are idle is one solution. The energy usage of a computer in sleep mode is usually around 4W. The average value PC uses just under 100W when in use, so the difference is very noteworthy. Unfortunately, computers tend to wake up from sleep mode when certain tasks need to be done and there is no (built-in) way to enable stand-by on after hours. (If you read this and you know of a way that works, please let me know!)

    Cleaning computers

    An other thing that is often overlooked, is to physically clean out computers with a small compressor or a can of compressed air. Regular computers use fans for cooling. Unfortunately, with the fresh air, fans also blow dust into the housing. Over time, this dust create a nice blanket over the CPU, causing the CPU to run warmer. Fans blow faster to cool more, which only aggravates the issue by blowing in more dust. All these elements use additional energy and the fans create a lot of noise. Besides a very noisy machine, the risk of the computer crashing due to heat issues is increased and the lifetime of the computer is lowered. 

    Just turning off computers, and performing some simple maintenance on the computers once or twice per year (when the computers are turned off anyway) will save you considerably in energy cost, extend the lifetime of the hardware and may avoid some crashes along the way..

    Source: vimeo.com

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