Some smart energy options can save you a bunch of money. It did for HSBC which claims to have saved $1,090,180 in energy costs after using a technology that turns off 300,000 PCs during nights and weekends. The software technology it uses is called NightWatchman which is made by 1E Technologies.
The software has the ability to safely and securly power down a PC or a Mac remotely thus saving electricity from unnecessary idling of the PC. The software also has built in technology to ensure that all user data is saved and by doing so no user data is lost.
When the computers are not in use, the software detects this and puts it in hibernated state which saves energy. However before doing so the software saves all the user data and settings which can be retrieved later.
HSBC has rolled out this technology to about 300,000 PCs so far and said that it hopes to save much more by trying to get it out to all of the 8,000 offices in 88 countries.
Just imagine how much we could save by turning off our PCs. If the US Government turned off its PCs at night, thats a few billion dollars right there!
You can read more about 1E Technologies here.