Software

Operating System 

The operating system can have just as big an influence as any other component in the computer.

Operating systems installed in a lab computers is Windows XP.

We suggest to upgrade the operation system to a Windows 7 Home Premium, due to following reason.

In 2009, Mindteck’s Advanced Smart Energy Lab released a study comparing Windows 7 power management features to Windows XP and found compelling results indicating that upgrading to Windows 7 can help to reduce energy consumption, so that organizations can save on energy costs.

This table shows Comparative Power Consumption (W) with varying driver configurations and older hardware.

The configuration of lab PCs is most close to the P4 with updated drivers.  Assuming we upgrade the operation system from Win XP to Win 7, we can simply calculate the percentage of improvement.

     Calculate the percentage watt difference in each mode:

1) Idle:  64.2-57.3=6.9

X= (6.9 x 100)/64.2=10.7 (%)

2) Low: 69.7-66.1=3.6

X=(3.6x100)/69.7= 5.1 (%)

3) High: 89.8-79.4=10.4

X=(10.4x100)/89.8=11.6 (%)

Calculate the mean:

M= (10.7+5.1+11.6) /3 =9.1 (%)

Assuming that computers are used equally in each mode- idle, low and high, we would get a 9.1 % improvement in energy consumption, if we upgrade from Win XP to Win 7.

  

Windows 7 Power Plan

For as long as Windows has had power management, Windows has had power schemes or power plans. The power plans allow you to easily change from one set of power settings to another, depending on your preferences.

Within a power plan, you can change a variety of Windows power-saving features, including inactivity timers for turning off the display, automatically putting the system to sleep or even creating a new custom power plan for the exact settings you want. The display and sleep idle features are very important for power savings and battery life. As above, the display can consume approximately 40% of the power budget on the typical PC.

Plan for saving energy:

1) Set the display idle timeout to 5 minutes.

Such short timeout seems very aggressive, but the fact is that display is the main energy-consuming part in a computer. Turning off the display wouldn’t bring a big inconvenience to users, because all the current processes will stay on

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2) Set the computer sleep mode timeout to 20 minutes.

Sleep mode sets the computer in a low power mode. This mode save significant electrical consumption compared to leaving a device fully on and idle, but allow the user to avoid having to re-open the programs or wait for a machine to reboot.

3) Adjust screen brightness in range from minimum to the half.

On LCD monitor, reduction in brightness results in power saving. Brightness in range until 50 % is well enough for eyes.

3) Disable screen savers to allow the display to turn off.

Such useless thing as screen saver just brings additional load to RAM of a computer and better is being replaced by simple turning of the display.