Eco Button

Taadaa

I was given one of these by a contractor at work. It is a small device that you can use to put a computer into sleep mode without turning it off. Great if you want to stop to have dinner, but don't want to shut the whole system down.

Basically, you stick the lead in your base unit, download some free software, then when you want to stop just push the button. Then push any button to put it back on again. It comes up with a screen that keeps a rolling tally of the CO2 and dosh you've saved.

http://www.eco-button.com/uk/A2.1.home.htm

It says you need to email to find out where to buy them, as they are not available online or in shops yet.

IamJen

Hm. I'm not sure how this is different than putting your system to sleep by using the control panel, etc. We have 3 different operating systems in our household (counting the man's work computer) and all have this sort of thing built right in.

Taadaa

Yep if you have a fairly new system then it should have a sleep mode anyway...ours doesn't and we won't be upgrading any time soon...!

moonrakerz

"Awards"

"2008 Promotional Gift Award, Cologne Germany.

2008 ASI Show, Orlando USA. (ASI = Advertising Specialty Institute)

British Promotional Merchandise Association Award 2008"

Hardly Nobel prizes !!
"Promotional Merchandise/Gift" usually means free pens, mousemats and coasters !

Call it "Green" or "ECO" and someone will buy it - even if it is only to give it away !

Alwaysright

Still it might make some people do who didn't do it before. It might be better at work than at home actually, some people just leave their computer on normal mode all day here.

jimbo_the_jetset

Go to control panel, power options, advanced, choose hibernate when you press the power button.

Then when you press the power button (when the PC is on) it will turn off but all the open programs will be saved. When you start it up there they are. Not sure if this mode still uses power or just stores the info in the memory

IamJen

You can also choose on most systems, to set it to hibernate/sleep after a certain amount of time has passed. Mine shuts down the screen automatically after 10 minutes with no action. To me, this is the easiest of all, because it does it even if I forget.

digimortal_2

although a good product, i simply press the power button on my pc, it goes into the same sleep/eco mode, most modern motherboards that have the energy star logo will have similar modes... http://www.energystar.gov/

a power button is not just for off..

geordie_joe

tenfox wrote: »

From reading what they say it does more than your average hibernate button svaing £50 a year. I haven't bought one yet.

It looks like another example of a crap product made to sound good. At one point, very near the top it states "Save £50 a year in saved energy". No if's but's or up to's, just a straight statement that it will save £50 per year. At the bottom it states " Savings will vary depending on machine, the cost of your electricity and your eco button useage."

Not quite the same thing!

The savings are based on using the button for 4 hours per day when you would normally have the computer on. If you are going to leave the computer unattended for that long why not just turn it off?

I don't care what the web site says, the best eco button ever invented is the one on the wall socket.

geordie_joe

digimortal wrote: »

although a good product, i simply press the power button on my pc, it goes into the same sleep/eco mode, most modern motherboards that have the energy star logo will have similar modes... http://www.energystar.gov/

a power button is not just for off..

You are right, but the computers I have seen are set up for the button to turn the computer off. This can be changed by going into the control panel and "Power Options". Ensure "hibernate is enabled in the Hibernate tab. Click the Advanced tab and in the bottom section "Power Options" choose "Hibernate" for "When I press the power button on my computer". For XP Users, might be different in Vista.

Most people turn off the computer via the mouse and Start button, so changing the power button shouldn't effect turning it off.

Ben84

My computer (running linux) can be turned off while running programs and resumed later without losing anything. I suspect most computers could be set up to do this.