Power IT Down Day

by Josh Henning

Powering Down To Save Energy

Power IT Down Day is a great idea sponsored by Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp., and Citrix Systems that urges government and industries to turn off their computers before leaving for the night on August 28, 2008. The event is used to gauge potential energy savings by turning off unused computers, printers, and other equipment and to show companies the savings from rethinking their architecture. The ideal of the event is outstanding and depending on the number of participants, an HP report concluded a possible savings that could reach 80 billion. This is a crazy number that should be saved already because computers, monitors, and printers that are not used should already be turned off. The sponsoring companies intend to donate a portion of the cost savings to the American Red Cross of the National Capital Area so everyone should participate.

The fact that the event is labeled with the word "Day" is misleading because the goal is really to teach companies to change their everyday habits in order not to waste energy and save money. What company does not want to save money? Servers may not be turned off but computers and other equipment should be turned off or set on energy saving modes. Computer companies like Intel and others are constantly improving computer power management but for computers for workers who don't require 24 hour service, turning these products off takes seconds for huge savings and can be implemented quite as easily through company policy. Hopefully companies will learn from this event and make a change in wasteful energy management.

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