Patent ID: 8265508

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming part adapted to form an image on a recording material; a heat fixing part including a heat source, for fixing the image formed on the recording material; and a controller configured to control an operation of the heat fixing part, wherein, the image forming apparatus is operable to transfer from a stand-by mode to a power-saving mode in which an electric power consumed by the image forming apparatus is smaller than the electric power consumed by the image forming apparatus in the stand-by mode, if the image forming apparatus does not receive a print job in the stand-by mode, a time period setting part configured to permit a user to set a time period for transferring to the power-saving mode, wherein if the time period set by the user using the time period setting part is shorter than a reference period, the heat source is controlled to consume zero electric power in the stand-by mode, or the heat source is controlled to consume an average electric power in the stand-by mode which is smaller than an average electric power consumed in the stand-by mode in a case where the time period set by the user is longer than the reference period.