Solution by challenge
Stop paying to power PCs nobody is using.
Most PCs are needed for the working week, not the whole week. Acquaintia puts idle PCs to sleep outside business hours, keeps the work that matters running, and estimates what each PC used before and after.
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Without Acquaintia: on, nobody using it from 00:00 to 09:00, in use from 09:00 to 17:00, on, nobody using it from 17:00 to 24:00.
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With Acquaintia: asleep from 00:00 to 08:50, woken by Acquaintia from 08:50 to 09:00, in use from 09:00 to 17:00, on, nobody using it from 17:00 to 17:30, asleep from 17:30 to 24:00.
The problem
On all week. Needed for part of it.
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The hours add up
A PC on all week but needed for a 40-hour working week spends 128 hours a week doing nothing useful.
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Settings drift
Power settings get changed by people, by updates and by old policies. Nobody sees which PCs stay on.
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Forcing them off breaks things
Shutting PCs down on a timer cuts off backups, updates and anyone still working.
What does the work
The parts of Acquaintia that take this on.
How it is done
From left on to asleep, without anyone noticing.
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Choose a baseline
Deploy the agent and pick a period before any policy applies, so there is something to measure against.
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Set business hours
One scheme for the working day and a stricter one for everything else, assigned to groups that rules fill by location or directory.
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Protect the work that matters
List critical processes, set maintenance windows, and let calls and presentations keep PCs awake.
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See the change
The savings report shows estimated energy, cost and carbon against your baseline, for the sites and period you choose.
Never interrupts, 15 seconds, with music. Idle PCs go to sleep, but one is in the middle of a backup and stays on. The Exception Handling card lists the processes that block sleep; once the backup finishes, that PC sleeps too.
On screen:
- 0:00 Idle PCs sleep. This one’s mid-backup.
- 0:03 Name the work that mustn’t stop. While it runs, the PC won’t sleep, shut down or lock.
- 0:09 Then it sleeps too, once the job is done.
- 0:11 Acquaintia. Idle PCs sleep. Critical work doesn’t.
Idle PCs sleep. Critical work doesn’t.
A PC in the middle of a backup stays on while the rest of the floor sleeps, and sleeps too once the job is done.
Questions
How much will we save?
It depends on how many hours your PCs are on but not needed today. The cost calculator gives a first figure from your own numbers. Once Acquaintia is running, the savings report measures the change against your baseline.
Will people notice?
Only if they leave a PC idle. A PC counts as idle when nobody has used its keyboard or mouse for the time the policy sets, and calls, presentations, downloads and updates keep it awake.
Put a figure on your idle hours.
Book a demo and we’ll show you the policies, the exceptions and the savings report, set up for hours like yours.
Other challenges
- Report PC carbon for net zero Estimated Scope 2 emissions for every PC and site.
- Patch overnight, then sleep Wake PCs for updates, then let them sleep again.
- Manage power across every site Each site its own hours, tariff and policy, in one console.
- Acquaintia PC power management for Windows fleets: sleep, wake and the energy behind it.
- Healthcare Round-the-clock areas, shared workstations and offices that keep office hours.
- Education Shared PCs in labs, libraries and teaching rooms, empty for long stretches.