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Microsoft today announced the results of an independent study1 carried out by PC Pro Labs into the energy consumption of Windows Vista and the potential reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. The study compared energy usage between Windows XP and Windows Vista and clearly showed that the power management features in Windows Vista could help massively reduce the carbon dioxide generated by an organisation, equal to 45 tonnes per year for a business with 200 desktop PCs. In addition, these features could also deliver savings on energy bills of up to £46 per desktop PC per year.
The study is based on the real-world usage of desktop computers in the work environment2, highlighting in particular the habit of users leaving their PCs running even when not in use. The cost savings and carbon footprint offsetting arise from the power management features of Windows Vista which helps to address these areas through the default ‘Sleep’ mode which automatically activates after one hour of non-use. Typical PC usage patterns included:
• Light tasks, such as typing in Word or answering email, which are the primary use of a computer (approximately 40 percent of the time)
• The second most common “task” is simply to be idle (approximately 30 percent of the time)
• 30 percent of users leave their PC on at work at the end of the day
• 25 percent leave their PC on at work over the weekend
Jonathan Shopley, CEO The CarbonNeutral Company, said: “Every organisation – from services though to manufacturing - produces global warming gases as a by-product of doing business. As more and more businesses rely on technology, the number of PCs in the workplace is only going to increase. PCs consume a lot of power which can be really wasteful when they are left idle. Our role is to help organisations measure and reduce the CO2 from some or all of their operations. We therefore fully encourage companies to take any steps that they can to lower carbon emissions in this area.”
Windows Vista is Microsoft’s most energy efficient operating system to date with its power management system, functionality, reliability and default settings focused on helping to reduce overall PC energy consumption. The key areas where the Sleep mode in Windows Vista has been improved compared to the equivalent Standby mode in Windows XP include:
• Enter Sleep mode after being inactive for 60 minutes
• In Windows Vista, it is much easier for users to change the power management settings themselves
• The Sleep mode is more reliable than Windows XP’s Standby mode, both in terms of entering the mode and safely resuming back into Windows
• Windows Vista is much quicker at resuming from Sleep, now taking two to three seconds compared to five seconds for Windows XP
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News Source: Microsoft Corporation