monitor running costs

This white paper has entirely focused on the cost of running PCs and notebooks, cutting monitor sentirely out of the equation. This is partially because all modern monitors conform to stringent standards, and will usually switch off after a few minutes of non-use via Windows' display blanking settings.

As such, the only way for a business to save money and cut carbon dioxide emissions is to cut the power supply to the monitors.

It is, of course, impractical for a company to expect its IT department or users to pull the plug out ofthe wall socket each night, but there are options available.

One product recommended by both PC Pro and the Energy Saving Trust is the OneClick IntelliPlug, a power adaptor that automatically detects if the desktop PC pluggedinto its main socket is switched off; if it is, it cuts power to the other two sockets.

Modern CRT monitor typically draw 80W in use and 4W in standby mode. Modern TFT monitor stypically draw 35W in use and around 1W in standby mode.

If, as in the white paper above, we assume an eight-hour working day, five-day working week, then a combination of stricter power management and the use of an IntelliPlug will cut the amount of standby hours by 128 per week. Or 6,656 hours per year.

For a CRT monitor, that reduces the cost by £2.40 per year; for a TFT, £0.60 per year. As the cost of the IntelliPlug is £17, the financial argument is far more convincing for a CRT than a TFT, but the carbon dioxide cuts are also worth noting: 11.5kg for a CRT, 2.9kg for a TFT.

The drawback is that the user experience is affected: an LCD screen can take several seconds to returnto full brightness from being switched off, compared to less than a second from standby.

Excerpt：Microsoft Power management White Paper Mar2007