Green computing
Environmentally responsible computing - Minimising PC energy consumption
As part of the university's commitment to reducing its carbon footprint, a project is ongoing in Planning and Information to reduce and control the amount of energy used in running PCs.
A product called NightWatchman is being used to centrally manage the power state of staff and student PCs to minimise energy usage, coordinated with the necessary security update maintenance.
NightWatchman is helping to reduce average PC power costs from £30,000 each month to under £16,000, an average saving of over £14,000 each month.
When are PCs powered down?
Currently approximately 92% of staff computers and 99% of Student computers are being powered down.
Staff PCs are shutdown at 21:15 in academic buildings, where teaching takes place, and at 18:00 in other buildings. They are powered on between 05:25-06:00
Student PCs are woken up between 06:00-06:30 and are shutdown daily using the following schedule:
| Aldham Robarts Centre | 23:15 |
| Aquinas Building | 21:00 |
| Art & Design Academy | 21:00 |
|
Avril Robarts Centre |
23:15 |
| Byrom Street 3rd Floor IT Labs | 20:00 |
| Byrom Street Teaching Rooms | 21:00 |
| Dean Walters Building | 21:00 |
| Edge Lane | 20:00 |
| Great Crosshall Street | 21:00 |
| Haigh Building | 18:00 |
| Henry Cotton Building | 21:00 |
| 68 Hope Street | 21:00 |
| IM Marsh LRC | 23:00 |
| IM Marsh Teaching Rooms | 21:00 |
| John Foster Building | 21:00 |
| Kingsway House | 18:00 |
| Marybone | 18:00 |
| Tithebarn Street Building | 21:00 |
Future developments
Power management will be extended to all other PCs as soon as they are made capable of being controlled in this way, which requires them to be appropriately configured, necessitating visiting each machine.
PCs are "woken up" using a facility called "Wake on LAN", which means that they are powered up using controls applied across the network. They are woken up in the early morning in order to apply essential security updates without disturbance to usage in normal working time.
