Elon will begin a night-time lab computer shutdown program Sept. 10 as part of the university effort to reduce energy consumpution. Read this note for details...
Elon will begin a night-time lab computer shutdown program Sept. 10 aspart of the university effort to reduce energy consumpution.
Did you know that an idle computer uses as much power as an 80 watt light bulb? That means the Elon community leaves the equivalent of 2,000 – 80 watt light bulbs running all night long with lab, classroom and office computers.
Beginning Monday, Sept. 10, Elon technology staff will begin shutting down all computers in classrooms and computer labs at 2 a.m. Computers will remain on in any lab that has been identified as a 24 hour lab. Computer users who have critical experiments running in a computer lab, should let the help desk know so they can exempt those computers also. Users in computer labs will receive a warning of the impending shutdown ten minutes prior to the event. This auto shutdown only affects computers in academic labs and classrooms. The LCD monitors Elon has been purchasing have an energy saving mode that shuts the monitor off until computer activity is resumed.
No machines in any faculty or staff office will be included in the shutdown process, however faculty and staff members are asked to do their part by turning computers off at the end of the day.
Be aware if you are the first one to teach in a computer lab, it may take a few extra minutes to start the computers. Other universities have enacted this shutoff policy with great success literally saving many thousands of dollars in annual energy costs.
Thanks for helping us reach the energy savings goal that Dr. Lambert set at the beginning of the year.
Assistant Vice President for Technology