re monitors should they be kept on hours a day i wonder how hard it would be i e what it would add to the cost to design desktop machines with a power saver feature built in which would reduce power consumption automatically if the machine is idle for more than some amount of time i believe that apple sun and a number of other desktop machine manufacturers have agreed with the government to incorporate power saving techniques this is also something that governments in other countries are likely to require in the future so expect to see it this may include the ability for the system to fully power down the monitor via a controllable power outlet and power it back on automatically is this a sell on screen saver software companies goals for idle power consumption have been set at something like watts for the system not including the monitor don t quote me on this note that in many businesses the savings will be substantial especially if you factor in reduced load on air conditioning systems sun did a study that indicated that simply powering off monitors for the night would save the company sun itself on the order of m per year putting other and automatic power saving features in would probably have greater than double that value given that we are seeing more and more reason to leave our work and home computers on getting faxes automatically getting email building power consumption control into all machines has a potential to cut off the national power consumption based on data i heard btw when encouraging employees to power off monitors when leaving work it was pointed out that this should only be done with monitors with the power switch on front there was some indication that monitors with power switches on the rear are not designed to tolerate lots of power cycling this may only apply to the monitors we use but might be worth checking if you happen to have a monitor with the switch in back
