The summer heat has arrived in D.C. and we’re sure to have temperatures in the 80s and 90s for the foreseeable future. Inevitably, we’ll all be blasting the air conditioners in our homes, apartments, cars and offices. I know mine is certainly getting a ton of use as we reached 99 degrees in DC yesterday.
Despite the many reasons for using more energy in the summer, there are still ways for us to do our part to conserve. For one, think about all of the IT equipment that usually continues running for the entire weekend in our offices without being used. Could we spend the last two minutes on Friday afternoon shutting equipment down completely? Absolutely!
Building on that idea, if you’re going away for a few days, unplugging some of the power strips in your home or office is an efficient way to shut down several appliances at once to help conserve energy while you’re gone. It might require resetting your alarm clock when you get back, but you can fix the flashing 12:00 with a smile knowing you’ve saved a good deal of energy.
These ideas are the spirit behind “Power IT Down Day,” which HP will be sponsoring for the third consecutive year later this summer. The idea is to encourage healthy energy habits by making a commitment to power down for the weekend – this year for the weekend beginning on August 26. Power IT Down Day started in 2008 as a way for IT leaders in the public sector to encourage responsible energy consumption in government, but the program is expanding this year to include anyone willing to help conserve.
Just by turning of your computer, monitor and printer, you can save tens of thousands of costly kilowatt hours. To demonstrate how the energy savings from powering down can be put to good use we’ll again be making a donation to the Wounded Warrior Project. Last year, HP and other sponsors donated $60,000 to the project.
This year, HP, Citrix, Intel, GTSI and others have made a remarkable goal of getting 50,000 signups for the event. It’s an easy, hassle-free commitment – just visit http://poweritdown.org/ and we’ll contact you as the day approaches in August to remind you to turn off your IT equipment for the weekend.
I encourage you all to sign up for Power IT Down Day, but by the time this event happens in the late summer, we’ll have already missed a tremendous opportunity to save energy. So consider the different ways you can save energy in your office and home throughout the summer to make a truly significant impact!
Weekend powerdowns may also help with security!