A Personal Computer for the Planet
by Stephen Filler, Tarrytown, New York on 01.30.07
If computers are going to help solve the sustainability crises -- and we believe they will -- then they must stop being part of the problem.
A small Boston company, Tech Networks of Boston, is doing something about it. Last year, Tech Networks released it’s Earth-PC and Earth-Serve machines that use at least 25 percent less power than standard computers, and can save between $20-$45 in electricity costs per year. For a business, school district or organization with many computers, annual savings can easily be in the thousands.
A standard desktop computer, excluding the monitor, uses electricity roughly equivalent to a 100 watt light bulb. However, substantial waste occurs when the AC power from your outlet is converted to the DC power required for a computer. Inexpensive power supplies in most computers not only waste up to 40% of input electricity, but they also generate heat that requires additional energy for cooling. The Earth-PC uses an 80 Plus Certified power supply, guaranteed be at least 80% efficient, wasting not more than 20%.
Inefficiencies in servers are even greater, and Tech Network’s Earth Server can save $1,500 over a five-year period (see comparison here).
Tech Network not only provides a good product, but it’s a good corporate citizen. It gives discounts to non-profits and donated over $12,000 to charities in 2005. Tech Networks is also a co-founder in January 2006 of the Business Summit for a Sustainable Boston -- a network of business leaders and city officials actively working to make Boston a more livable, environmentally-friendly city.
Anyone know how much power a standard notebook pc uses? i.e. an inspiron 700m.
GrantB -
Maximum - 42.4 Watts (The system is running programs to maximize the power consumption.)
Minimum - 24.7 Watts (The system is in a waiting mode, such as at the MS-DOS prompt.)
ACPI S3 - 1.04 Watts (The system is in a low-power sleep mode.)
Off - 0.61 Watts (The system is turned off but is still connected to its AC power source.)
Source: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/corporate/environ/Insp_700M.pdf
These PCs are green in name only. Three of the four models use Intel Pentium D processors which are some of the least efficient processors available nowadays. If they wanted to be green they would have used AMD Athlon X2s or even better Intel Core 2 Duos (like they used on one of the models). Even their comparison doesn't make their computers look any better despite the fact that in these comparisons they turn power management off for the Dells but turn it on for their own computers!
"Earth-PC Basic: 54W on, 1W standby, 0W hibernation
(Equivalent Dell Dimension B110: 60W on, 3W standby, 1W hibernation)"
I really think Treehugger should remove this endorsement as it looks to me that Tech Networks of Boston is trying to pull a fast one on consumers willing to pay extra for "green" products.
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editor note: It has been reported to us that it is factually inaccurate that Earth-PCs are compared to Dells with the power-saving features turned off. This comment will stay up for context, but please be aware that its claims in that regard are unsubstantiated at this time.
I have flagged Lionel M Hutz’s comment because we do not compare Earth PCs with power management enabled to Dell’s computers with power management disabled. Please visit our website for details on how we researched comparison products. The energy calculator we post on our website fully discloses every operating assumption we have made.
As far as processors are concerned, we are an Intel authorized product dealer, and we use only Intel processors in our computers. For a comparison of power consumption between Intel and AMD models, please see this link. We are not suggesting that the Earth-PC is the most efficient type of computer you can own. Far from it. If you are truly committed to using the lowest possible amount of energy in computing, you should use a laptop with a 12 inch screen and a Crusoe processor. These machines use as little as 6 watts of power (as compared to 79 for the Earth-PC) and that includes the monitor!
We created the Earth-PC to sell to clients who want a PC at a price-point they can afford that will be comparable to the Dell they would have purchased.
I applaud Earth PC -- and checked them out when purchasing a new computer last month -- but ended up instead going to a similar type of semi-custom computer builder and having them use an 80 Plus Certified power source, which I helped them select from an online list of manufacturers/models at www.80plus.org. (The site also has a list of computer suppliers that use the power sources on some of their models; the list includes Tech Networks.) The supplier I used was not familiar with the certification, but now is -- so I consider that a plus in terms of "spreading the gospel."
I was in no way trying to be disingenuous, from looking at EarthPC's website I strongly got the impression that they were making an unequal comparison. Particularly on this page: http://techboston.com/earthpcintro.htm .
As to their argument that they are an Intel dealer and therefore they will only sell Intel CPUs, fine but then at least stick to Core 2 Duos. Celeron D and Pentium Ds are the worst possible CPUs on the market to use when trying to design an energy efficient computer. They are notorious for being "space heaters" due to their extremely inefficient design leading to tons of heat and wasted electricity. Since a comparably priced alternative exists that has the same or better performance (AMD Athlon 64 X2 or Intel Core 2 Duo) I really don't see how they can pretend that their "EarthPCs" are effiecient.
Sure EarthPCs may be slightly more efficent than some Dells but a Chevy Suburban is more efficient than a Hummer, does that mean they should rename them EarthCars?