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21 November 2022 – Saving EnergyTime to Wake Up: Trainees at the URZ Have Become “Energy Scouts”

With the help of their training as energy scouts, the URZ trainees are initiating concrete ways to save energy. For the past five years, the URZ has been training its second-year trainees to become energy scouts through the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK, Industrie- und Handelskammer). Thomas Käseberg and Aaron Neuner are our new energy scouts and have shown how to “wake up” computers remotely and thus save energy.

URZ Azubis Thomas Käseberg und Aaron Neuner

The need for energy efficiency and climate protection is more urgent than ever: qualified employees who can discover potential ways to conserve energy inside our organization and implement these ideas are therefore sorely needed. Every year at the URZ, trainees learn about various topics relating to energy and the sustainable use of resources through the IHK, thus qualifying them as energy scouts.

Qualified in Climate Protection: Energy Scouts Identify Potential Energy Conservation Measures

Aaron Neuner and Thomas Käseberg have been training as IT specialists in systems integration at the URZ since 2020 and have recently completed their qualifications as energy scouts. To obtain this additional qualification, the trainees took part in lectures and workshops. They presented their final project and poster at the IHK and at the URZ. “We did the training at the IHK in the middle of the pandemic when many employees were working from home. For our project, we looked for a topic that was both relevant and easy to implement at the university, and we decided on the topic of 'saving energy when working from home by using Wake-on-LAN,'” explains Aaron Neuner.

Simple, Efficient and Cost-effective: Save Energy with Wake-on-LAN

Some employees need to access their office PC while working remotely, which means that their work computers are often left on and running 24/7. By using the Wake-on-LAN function, these PCs can be remotely booted up and shut down from home via the connected network, making continuous operation a thing of the past. “We first tried Wake-on-LAN ourselves at the URZ and then theoretically extrapolated the potential savings in energy consumption to the university. The potential savings per compter amounts to 142.1 kWh per year. Implemented in just ten percent of all university workstations, this adds up to 120,000 kWh per year for an estimated 850 PCs,” explains Thomas Käseberg.

If you are interested in setting up Wake-on-LAN on your work computer and other ideas for saving electricity, read our energy-saving tips.

An Added Plus: IT Security & Fire Protection

It is also better from an IT security perspective if computers are shut down when they are no longer in use; the same applies to fire protection. Additionally, it is easier on the hardware. Older computers in particular consume more power than newer models, so shutting them down is particularly beneficial. The two future IT specialists concluded by saying, “We hope to help create awareness among users that every individual can save energy even if their impact may seem small and that this will lead to extensive use of Wake-on-LAN at our university.”