Magic Packets to Save the Planet

Most modern computers with a wired network adapter in them can accept a Wake-on-LAN signal which will  power up the computer if it is off, asleep, or hibernated.  It's a combination of the NIC's MAC address (which is a low-level hardware address, which is unique across all network adapters out there), and some other voodoo, combined into an Ethernet frame commonly known as a "Magic Packet".

I thought, hey, this would be a great thing to help you shave off even more of the electricity footprint of your always-on computers.  I know a lot of us might like to keep our desktops powered on, just in case we need access to them remotely.

So how about this?

• You put your computer to sleep when you leave for the day. Sleep modes routinely use <10W of power relative to the 100+W when it's fully powered on. 
• Go to a site like www.remotewakeup.com, enter your IP address and MAC Address, send the Magic Packet to your computer to take it out of sleep mode (or power it on).
• Do the work you needed to do remotely
• Put the computer back to sleep

Say your computer used 100W when fully on and 10W when asleep.  If your computer is on 24x7, that's 16.8kWh per week.  If your computer is only on during business hours and asleep the rest of the time, that's 5.7kWh per week, a savings of 66%!  If you shut your computer off at night, you can bump that savings up to 75%.

Congratulations; you just saved the planet.

Will you try to configure Wake-On-LAN and invoke the Magic Packet?  Hit the comments with your experience!