…or should I say, reducing energy usage while computing…

Either way, I have been consciously been thinking about the energy usage of my computers recently. First, I have a lot of computers…too many actually. I only have two “recent” computers that get used the most, but there are other computers in the house. I used to just keep them all on, but recently I’ve changed my habits…and it made a difference!

First, a run down of what kind of computing power lives inside the Rowe household:

My Main PC:

Intel Core2Quad (Quad Core) 2.4GHz, 8GB Ram, 3HDD’s, decent mid-range video card

Downstairs PC:

Intel Core2Duo (Dual-Core) 2.4GHz, 4GB Ram, 2HDD’s

Mom’s Upstairs PC:

Intel P4 1.8GHz, 1GB Ram, 1 HDD

Server:

Sun UltraSPARC IIe 650MHz, 1GB Ram, 1HDD

Random old PC #1:

AMD Dual Opteron 2.4GHz (Dual CPU - not Dual Core), 4GB Ram, 4HDD’s (2 on a RAID-0 and 2 on a RAID-1)

Random old PC #2:

AMD Athlon XP 2400+, 1GB Ram, 1HDD

Random old PC #3:

Intel dual PIII Xeon 1GHz, 512MB RAMBUS Ram, 4HDD’s

Random old PC #4:

AMD Athlon 650MHz, 512MB Ram, 3 HDD’s

Random old Laptop:

HP w/ 1GHz AMD, 512 Ram

I used to keep all of these machines on 24/7. “Random old PC’s 1-4 were also connected to a KVM, which was attached to a mammoth 21″ CRT display which was also on 24/7 and served as my ‘test bed’ for quite a long time, and helped fuel my Linux distro-hopping frenzy - basically these were my “I’m bored and I wanna break something” PC’s. “Random old Laptop” usually stayed in sleep mode, but seldom get’s used, and I’ve since just powered it off and put it away for now.

The only PC’s that get regular usage are my “Main PC”, “Downstairs PC”, “Mom’s Upstairs PC”, and “Server”. These aren’t the real names, but here for description only. The real names of my PC’s are all based on Simpsons characters except for the server which i named ’sparticus’ since it’s a SPARC system, and it just seemed like a fitting name. You can actually visit ’sparticus’ here if you’d like.

What I’ve done to change:

“Random old PC’s 1-4″ along w/ their 21″ CRT have been powered off…completely retired, and will either be listed on e-bay “whole” or in “pieces” soon (I can’t decided which way would be better for these old guys) or I might donate them. They are all four “cool” in their own quirky little ways, and I hate to see them go - each had been my main machine at some point in time (as was “Downstairs PC” and “Mom’s Upstairs PC”), but they served no “real” purpose any longer, other than sucking up electricity.

My “Main PC”, the “Downstairs PC” and “Mom’s Upstairs PC” now get suspended if they aren’t being used for 1 hour. I’ve actually managed to re-train Mom on doing this, which was an awesome feat in itself after years of telling her “just leave them on”. Her upstairs PC is actually on about 30 minutes every night, and she is the primary user of “Downstairs PC”, which is probably fully powered on a total of 2 hours a day (at the most). My “Main PC” is on for about hour after I get home from work, then about an hour (sometimes two) before I go to bed during the week. On the weekends (or when I’m off work), it could be going a lot more, depending on what’s going on, or how bored I am with “real life” at the moment. The SPARC system is the only one that is staying on 24/7. It’s actually in a desktop case, and runs headless tucked away in a cubby along with my modem and router.

I have also set up EIST and C1E CPU throttling on the Downstairs PC, which causes the 2.4GHz Core2Duo to run at 1.2GHz unless under heavy load (which I doubt it ever is, unless Pogo.com is more intensive than I realize ). I do not use those built-in throttling features on my Main PC as they seem to affect the performance of virtual machines - I prefer to have the stable 2.4GHz clock on this machine.

I’ve only done this for one month, but when my bill arrived it was $50 less than it had been running, and we also recently just saw a rate hike in my area, so I have to assume this was the difference. I can’t wait to see what next month’s light-bill brings! I also made the switch to Compact Florecent light-bulbs when we moved into this place back in Feburary ‘08, so since I never got a bill using all standard bulbs, I never got a benchmark, but I’m sure the CF bulbs help my energy bill a good bit as well.