Patent ID: 8032048

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 configured to generate heat from electrical power, for fixing the image formed on the recording material; and a controller configured to control the 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 the 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 in a set time period, and the image forming apparatus further comprises: 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 an average electric power in the stand-by mode which is smaller than the average electric power consumed if the time period set by the user is longer than said reference period.