Sleeping eMac?

[Eric Dunbar]

On Tue, 4 Jan 2005 10:21:27 -0800, Ken Barber <kenb at nu-world.com> wrote:
> On Tuesday 04 January 2005 6:52 am, a monkey wrote:
> > How can I get my eMac to "sleep" like in the old Mac OS X days? You
> > know, have the monitor and fan shut off, etc. I want to leave my eMac on
> > all night, but I'm not willing to waste so much power. If I could get my
> > eMac to "sleep", it would be very helpful to me.
> 
> This is not a permanent solution, but if you're in the Northern Hemisphere and
> heating with electricity, you're not saving ANY power by having your computer
> go to sleep.  At least not during the heating season.
> 
> Every watt of electricity consumed produces 3.2 BTUs of heat energy,
> regardless of how it was used:  light bulbs, motors, refrigerators, or space
> heat.  Doesn't matter.  Every watt consumed produces 3.2 BTUs, and (as long
> as it's consumed there) this heat ends up in your living space.

I can't comment on the validity of your physics off the top of my head
but I can state with certainty that electricity is the most
inefficient way to heat buildings.

There are other advantages as well: energy saving mode reduces or (on
laptops and fan-less iMacs) eliminates noise pollution and you don't
end up needlessly wasting energy. The most important thing that energy
saving devices can do is raise user awareness of the energy they _are_
using.

Someone who hasn't got the foggiest clue about (or disdain for (I'm
not including you in this category b/c you may have a rational, valid
argument)) energy saving appliances is likely going to be the same
kind of person that runs their A/C at max, believes it's their
God-given right to wander around in a t-shirt in their house in the
middle of the winter or drive one of those monster SUVs (they are
truly sick... time to require a much more stringent driver's licence
to operate anything over, let's say, 1000 kg (2200 lbs)), endagering
others, through the wars fought for oil and the physical danger posed
by (by-and-large) unskilled drivers operating multi-ton vehicles
without a whit of care for the people around them.

But, this still doesn't deal with the initial post looking for a
solution to the need for energy savings in a desktop device.

Eric.