Computers Use a lot of Energy, But Can Save Even More
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 07. 3.08
Good Computer, Bad Computer
The Global eSustainability Initiative has released a report showing that while information and communications technologies (ICT) use a lot of energy and have an impact on global warming, that impact might not be negative. It is true that electronic equipment worldwide is about on par with aviation for CO2 emissions with 830 million tonnes (or 2% of total), but the other side of the coin is that these technology could help avoid 7.8 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions by 2020, or 500% more than what they caused.
How Computers Make us Greener
The most obvious way that electronic equipment can make us greener is by reducing transportation emissions: Videoconferencing, email, audio calls, etc. That should all add up to between 140m and 220m tonnes of CO2 a year in 2020. But the real big improvements are elsewhere: Improving logistics (f.ex. planning better routes for delivery vehicles, managing supply chains better, etc) could save 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2, using data networking to create a "smart" grid could save 2 billion tonnes of CO2, and computer-controlled buildings that can manage lighting and ventilation depending on how many people are inside could save a further 1.7 billion tonnes of CO2.
But it won't happen on its own:
None of this will be easy. The industry can supply the hardware and software, but the bigger problem is the “wetware”—people, economics and politics. The right skills are often scarce. Incentives are lacking for businesses to invest in carbon-reducing technology. There need to be new technical standards. For transport, power grids and buildings to become more efficient, there must be rules on how, for instance, refrigerators should talk to electricity meters, and thermostats to heating systems. But the internet shows that when common standards are agreed on in an industry, great things can happen. The technology industry's contribution to tackling climate change may come from its standards bodies as much as its clever gizmos.
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Computers do waste energy, but a lot of it can be saved by using a smart strip.
Replace your desktop with a laptop, and set up power-saving options. Load your desktop with Free software and donate it, or have it eWaste recycled with a company that doesn't outsource. At least replace your CRT with an LCD. Recycling CRTs is important – they contain 2 pounds or more of lead.
It's possible to write software to be energy-efficient too, for example:
http://www.earth.org.uk/low-power-software.html
and to radically reduce the amount of hardware (and thus energy/CO2) to get a particular job done, eg:
http://www.earth.org.uk/low-power-laptop.html
As you can see, I drank the 'kool-aid'!
Rgds
Damon
Unfortunately, its not so simple.
When the systems described start making benefits, the CO2 emissions used to get to that point is gonna be already off the charts. Or maybe the planet will get to the limit before the grids are ready to operate.
A smart strip is a good idea and I will get one. But is there any information out there on what brands of computers use the least amount of energy? Like many who post these comments, one of my favorite hobbies is surfing the Internet on renewable energy and environmental issues. But I don't want to be the Abominable Snowman chatting away about the virtues of Bambi. In other words I don't want to make a big carbon footprint while speaking about the virtues of a small carbon footprint.
Ironically you choose to use the most power hogging Intel-CPU availabe as picture.
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editor note: It depends how you use it. For the amount of work it can do as a high-load server CPU, for example, the Conroe and Penryn architectures are very power-efficient.
The power efficiency of a computer is unrelated to the brand. Each part comes from a different manufacturer no matter who assembled them, so you have to consider the parts.
Laptops use less energy than desktops, unless they are meant to be desktop-replacements. Try and get an energy star one. Energy star monitors are important. As are efficient power supplies, except OEM's rarely list PSU info anywhere- you may have to open the case to see what is in there. Lots of ram can sometimes reduce power consumption, since too little ram can lead to increased use of the page file (constant use of the hard drive uses additional power). The CPU can use a lot of power, but the newer ones generally use the least power per computation done. More powerful graphics cards can use a tremendous amount of power, but they are not in use all of the time.