In a report released on Monday, the PC maker claimed that about AU$290 million is wasted every year in the UK alone powering PCs that could have been shut down or left in hibernation mode. The report also pointed out the environmental impact of all the wasted energy.
Fujitsu Siemens surveyed 1,000 employees and found that some 370 never turned off their computers before leaving the office for the day.
"UK businesses need to consider both the financial and environmental implications of leaving a computer running and make turning off their PCs each night a policy," said Garry Owen, head of product marketing at Fujitsu Siemens Computers, who added that simply putting a computer into standby means it still is consuming power.
Fujitsu Siemens released its report to coincide with the start on Monday of Energy Saving Week, a UK initiative aimed at raising the awareness of the damaging effects of climate change and ways to prevent it.
With energy prices having soared in recent months, plus growing concerns over climate change, the amount of power used by PCs is a hot topic. The European Union recently agreed legislation to cut down on energy wasted by idle computers, including those left in standby.
"Hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide are needlessly produced every year by computers, digital set top boxes, chargers and many other products left on standby mode," said Environment Minister Elliot Morley in June. "We know that products can be designed to be much more efficient and do less harm to the environment. Wasted energy is a hidden cost for consumers and in this day and age that is unacceptable."
There has been confusion in the past about whether it is better to turn PCs off when not in use, or to leave them switched on. Some people have claimed that regularly turning computers off can, over time, weaken links between components and damage hardware such as the hard drive.
According to some estimates, just turning off a monitor can save 75 percent of the overall energy consumption of a PC.
ZDNet UK's Graeme Wearden reported from London. For more coverage from ZDNet UK, click here.
This question has been dealt with previously, with the following answers:
A) Cycling power on a PC is not a good idea it produces thermal stress in the unit which can lead to all manner of faults usually the nasty intermitant sort. This leads to productivity loss, increased replacement costs and the ever green friendly landfill cost.
B) Base power is just that, it is there all the time and you can't just switch it on and off, so wether or not your PC is on the power will be produced and the CO2 generated.
C) Finally, what happens when your 100000 powered off PCs are started in the morning, one almighty power surge that needs to be met by more expensive power supplies, read gas or oil fired generators.