a powerful way to save energy

How much will Powerdown save me?

The hidden costs

The average desktop computer uses 120W of power even when it is doing nothing. Leaving a single computer running 24 hours a day will cost £75 (~US$152, ~€98) over the course of a year and will be responsible for the release of ¾ tonne of CO₂ into the atmosphere. In many businesses computers are left running permanently even though they are used for only 8 to 10 hours per day.

Typical savings

Powerdown users can typically expect to reduce their IT energy bills by up to 40%. With current business electricity tariffs this equates to a saving of around £30 (~US$60, ~€40) per PC, per year and reduces CO₂ emissions by around 300kg.

The graph below shows the cumulative power consumption (Watt/Hrs) measured on a real user's system over a 3 hour period. Power consumption is significantly reduced when Powerdown is used (green line).

See our article on Measuring the effect of Powerdown on PC power consumption for more information on the reduction in power consumption and details of how we conducted these tests.

Actual savings

The amount you will save will vary depending upon your particular hardware configuration, the length of time for which your computers are actually used, the price your energy supplier charges for your energy tariff and the energy saving settings applied to the operating system.

Our calculations suggest that a typical business will make sufficient energy savings to recover the cost of their investment within 5 to 10 weeks