Assessment of Affecting Factors on Personal Computers Power Consumption in an Academic Center in 2014: A Short Repor

Computer is one of the most common office equipment that spends around 25% energy consumption in an administrative building. As an action toward resistive economy policy in saving energy, we conducted a study on affecting factors on personal computers (PCs) power consumption in an academic center. This research was a cross-sectional study among a group of staff in Babol University of Medical Sciences in 2014. The research population included all PC users in main part of Babol University of Medical Sciences. The data were collected by means of a researcher made data checklist through visiting, interviewing and observation. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics indexes and chi-square test. Among 232 PC users, 212 (91.4%) were educated. Almost 94% of computers were connected to internet, and 56.5% were used more than 5 hours per day. 73%, 61%, and 25% of computers were equipped with printers, speakers and scanners, respectively. Only 63 (27.2%) of the users were familiar with the existing mechanisms of reducing power consumption in a computer. Finally, more than half of users (56%) were fully unplugging the computer and accessories at the end of work shift. Despite frequent and prolonged computer use by the users, it seems that an academic center staff knowledge about the mechanisms for reducing the power consumption is inadequate. Thus, implementation of resistive economy policies requires staff training and their cooperation.