Monday, August 20, 2012

Why You Should Use Computer Sleep Mode

Why You Should Use Sleep Mode | PCWorld:

Time to Sleep: 0:18 Time to Wake: 0:02

"high-end system uses some 120-130 watts just sitting at the desktop (not including monitor), and uses 1 watt when powered off (most computers draw a very small amount of power, even when off, so they can do things like turn on when you press the power button). In sleep mode, my system draws a whopping 5 watts. Five. What does that different of 4 watts mean to you?

let's just suppose your system is turned off 16 hours a day. That 4W difference works out to a whopping 1.92 killowatt-hours (kWh) per month. According to the Department of Energy, the average price for electricity in the U.S. is 11.59 cents per kWh, so sleep mode costs you 22.2 cents per month. The average home in the U.S. uses 936 kWh per month, so 16 hours of sleep mode a day would be a 0.21% increase in monthly power usage. That's what we call a "rounding error."

Important:

system BIOS should support the S3 ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). The S1 mode leaves the CPU and RAM powered up, the S3 mode powers those down.

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