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Computers are essential in today's data-driven workplace, but they use—and waste—a lot of energy. One study found that U.S. workers waste $2.8 billion a year in energy costs by leaving PCs on overnight. With these numbers, it's easy to make the business case for PC power management software. These programs automatically put computers in low-power 'sleep mode' when they're not being used. The benefits of PC power management include:

• Energy savings—up to $36 per computer or more annually. These savings can add up quickly if your business has a lot of computers.
• Enhanced data security—reduced risk that valuable information is exposed on unattended computers.
• Improved productivity—by eliminating the need for workers to shut down computers and wait for them to boot back up.

Power management software

The EPA's ENERGY STAR® program offers EZ GPO, a free software tool that provides centralized control over user power management settings in Windows computers. The following example demonstrates how one company benefited from using this no-cost resource.

A number of commercial power management software packages are available. ENERGY STAR provides a list of these.

How much can computer power management save you? Use the ENERGY STAR Power Management Savings Calculator to find out.