This guide presents considerable detail about how power management is implemented, and steps sometimes necessary to get it to work satisfactorily. Despite the volume of this information, in most cases it is fairly straightforward to enable power management. Some key points to bear in mind are (relevant chapters in parentheses):

• Power management can save the country significant energy, money, and reduce pollution (Chapter 1)
• Without an effort to properly enable power management, much of this will not be realized (Chapter 1)
• Power management saves energy by reducing electricity use when machines are not in active use. Most of this time is during nights and weekends (Chapter 2)
• For many machines, power management is not a substitute for turning off machines
• It is estimated that a typical machine is in active use less than 10% of the time (Chapter 2)
• Monitors can save more energy than PCs and are usually easier to enable for power management (Section 3.5)
• For many PC systems, the BIOS is the key to successful power management (Chapter 3)
• Several low-power operating "modes" are defined, some within the Advanced Power Management standard, and some beyond it (Chapter 3)
• Networks and network operating systems can pose significant challenges to power management (Section 3.4)
• Power management can be found in many types of computer systems, including many PCs running DOS, Windows, MacOS, or OS/2, or workstations running unix or OS/2 (Section 4.2)
• There are many specific barriers that can arise to defeat power management, but most are solvable (Section 4.4)
• For existing PCs, the simplest energy savings strategy is to simply turn devices off when not in use (Chapter 4)
• Delay times of 10 to 20 minutes are recommended for each power management state (except hibernation) (Section 4.3)
• New computer purchases can be made with power management in mind (Chapter 5)
• The future is bright for power management (Chapter 6)
• Keeping up-to-date is important (Chapter 6)

The most significant factor that could lead toward a quick evolution of effective power management systems in computers is consumer demand! Most PC users are unaware of the energy-saving features in today's PCs. An educated consumer is a powerful consumer. We encourage interested readers to provide direct and pointed feedback to computer suppliers and manufacturers about their power management features. If the consumer requests these features, the manufacturers will modify their equipment to meet demand.

Continue to Chapter 8: References.

Return to the PC User Guide table of contents and home page.

Return to Chapter 6: Future Directions.