06 October 2022 – Energy Efficiency Tips for Saving Electricity at your PC Workstation
Save energy and protect the environment: It only takes a few configuration adjustments and a few behavioral changes to make working on a PC more energy efficient. Applied on a university-wide scale, each individual can make a significant contribution to reducing electricity consumption in the office, in the library or at home. Here are our tips for an energy efficient PC workstation.
Set up power saver mode
When a quick trip to the copier turns into a longer conversation with a colleague, your PC will often continue to run and consume unnecessary energy. Therefore, it makes sense to configure your operating system to put the computer into power saver mode after a certain period of inactivity. How to do this on Windows 10 is described in the linked How-to.
Let your PC take a break and clock out
When you are taking a longer break or finishing for the day, you should completely shut down your PC and all peripheral devices, such as printers and monitors.
Avoid standby using power strips with a power switch
Use a power strip with an on/off switch for your devices, so they can be disconnected from the power grid. This is a simple way to prevent your devices from consuming power via integrated power supplies even when they are turned off.
Avoid remote connections, use Wake-on-LAN function
Have you been using your office PC remotely from your home office? Then you should check (with your supervisor) whether the use of a work laptop would be more practical. The Sync-and-Share service on heiBOX is another convenient way to sync all the data on your office PC to your laptop - or you can even switch to a docking station in the office and leave the desktop PC turned off altogether.
If you really can't do without a remote connection, use the Wake-on-LAN function for your office PC. This avoids the PC being left on overnight or even over the weekend and unnecessarily consuming power. This is because with Wake-on-LAN, your PC can be configured to turn on automatically at the start of the workday, so you can shut it down at the end of the day without worrying about whether you'll need to access it later. How to use Wake-on-LAN is explained in the linked How-to.
Print sparingly, print centrally
Ask yourself before you print: Do I really need this on paper or can I use it digitally? You should also prioritize using centrally located multifunction printers, which are already switched on, and avoid using the printer in your office. If you do need to print something in your office, turn the printer off immediately after use.
Use a laptop instead of a desktop
Laptops generally consume significantly less power than your average desktop PC. They are well suited for most simple office tasks, e.g., composing emails or texts or even simple image editing and are an economical alternative to the tower under the desk. However, for longer periods working on a laptop, the use of a docking station is recommended for ergonomic reasons so that you can connect to external peripherals such as a mouse, keyboard and monitor.
Use an adblocker
Advertisements on web pages generate additional data traffic via the internet, which in turn consumes more energy. By using an adblocker on your browser, you can hide ads and thus (indirectly) save energy - not to mention make browsing much more pleasant. Adblockers can be installed as an add-on on most browsers.