Source: вЂњUser Guide to Power Management for PCs and MonitorsвЂќ, Bruce Nordman, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, January, 1997, LBNL-39466 5. Modern hard disks are not significantly affected by frequent shutdowns.вЂќ Conventional wisdom, however, has not kept pace with the rapid technological change in the computer industry. вЂњThe belief that frequent shutdowns are harmful persists from the days when hard disks did not automatically park their heads when shut off frequent on-off cycling could damage such hard disks. Source: Rocky Mountain Institute Home Energy Brief #7 Computers and Peripherals. In fact, IBM and Hewlett Packard encourage their own employees to turn off idle computers, and some studies indicate it would require on-off cycling every five minutes to harm a hard drive.вЂќ вЂњModern computers are designed to handle 40,000 on-off cycles before failure, and youвЂ™re not likely to approach that number during the average computerвЂ™s five- to seven-year life span. Can sleep features wear out hardware by forcing the computer to turn on and off several times a day? Source: 'Eleven Energy Myths: From Efficient Halogen Lights to Cleaning Refrigerator Coils', Lawrence Berkeley National Labs 4. In reality, the small surge of power created when some devices are turned on is vastly smaller than the energy used by running the device when it is not needed. Do computers and monitors use more energy with power management features activated due to power surges when cycling on and off?ДЄ popular myth holds that leaving lights, computers, and other appliances on uses less energy than turning them off and also makes them last longer. If your screen saver appears but your monitor never enters sleep mode, your screen saver may be the culprit: try disabling it. If you want to use your screen saver in conjunction with monitor power management, set the screen saver 'wait time' to less than the period of time after which the monitor enters sleep mode.

Modern display screens do not suffer as much from this problem, but screen savers are still used for entertainment. Screen savers were originally developed to prevent the permanent etching of patterns on older monochrome monitors. In fact, certain graphics-intensive screen savers can cause the computer to burn twice as much energy, and may actually prevent a computer from entering sleep mode. Screen savers generally do not save energy.

Do I need to activate power management features? You can save up to $50 or more per computer by activating system standby or hibernate features. Why should I use power management features?Д®asy money. Low Carbon IT Campaign Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 1.

What is the purpose of a screen saver