in Desktop PCs and Workstations

This thesis investigates potential energy savings due to the application of power managed PCs, monitors, and workstations. The basis of this effort includes electric metering of such equipment at six preliminary and one primary location, a large business office in Boston, Massachusetts. Metering there occurred over an 8 week period, using an in-line metering device, and at a resolution of one minute intervals. The results of this study show that many problems exist in the field today which prevent any energy savings from being realized. These include both software and hardware incompatibilities. It was found that either the equipment was not enabled from the beginning; that various problems caused inadvertent disabling of the energy saving features, or that lack of knowledge about specific power management techniques caused the user to intentionally disable the features. Since this work began, the EPA's Energy Star Computers and Monitors Program updated their requirements such that-energy saving features are now enabled when they are shipped from the manufacturer. All computers tested in this investigation were installed before the application of this condition, which was October 1, 1995. However, many problems exist other than thos