EPA Tightens Up Power Specs For PCs

Keeping up with an increasingly global "green" directive for the tech industry, for the first time in seven years the United States government's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has rolled out new Energy Star specifications for computers and related equipment. After the specs take effect, new Energy Star qualifying computer equipment will be 65 percent more efficient than conventional models, according to the EPA. The new requirements include improved efficiency across all modes of a computer's operation, and require use of highly efficient internal and external power supplies in order to earn the EPA's Energy Star label. The new specifications go into effect on July 20, 2007.

If every computer purchased by businesses meets the new Energy Star requirements in effect next year, the EPA said that businesses will save $1.2 billion over the lifetime of their new computers, equal to lighting 730 million square feet of U.S. commercial building space each year. The agency also claimed that the requirements could save U.S. households and businesses more than $1.8 billion in energy costs over the next five years, and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equal to the annual emissions of 2.7 million cars.

:: Information Week via EcoGeek