PC Buyers Might Get Efficiency Tags to Help with Computer Purchases
by Jaymi Heimbuch, Central Coast, California on 09.22.08
The upcoming specifications document for Energy Star 5.0 lists language that just might spell out an easier time for purchasers of PCs. A note on page 10 of the doc makes it sound like consumers could soon get those handy little tags that spell out a device’s power use and its relative efficiency. These tags have become invaluable to shoppers of appliances, and would also be a welcome tool for PC shoppers.
But, just what does the wording imply?
Here is the quote from page 10:
Note: EPA proposes a TEC [Typical Energy Consumption] approach below for combining the discrete modal power values measured for computers into an annualized energy value. Such an approach, used in other ENERGY STAR home/office electronics specifications including Imaging Equipment and Set Top Boxes, provides end users with a single, easy to understand, point of comparison for energy consumption. This approach provides incentive for component efficiency innovations to counter more consumptive capabilities, while at the same time allowing computer designers flexibility to choose appropriate measures.
It sounds to me like if we aren’t getting labels, we’re at least getting an easier way to compare energy consumption for PCs.
Either way, this is great news for several reasons, the first of which is listed there in the quote. When energy consumption of a PC is more transparent to consumers, manufacturers will have more incentive to build energy efficient computers.
Secondly, while we are definitely getting more energy efficient computers, such as the EcoSystem, the CherryPal, or the Dell Studio Hybrid, it is still tough to compare apples to apples - er, PCs to PCs. Someone else doing this part of the comparison for us relieves us of a fat headache.
And finally, many people shop for PCs more often than they shop for major appliances. Familiarity with Energy Star ratings may encourage them to consider the labels the next time they have to shop for bigger energy consumers.
Perhaps we’ll see what the language really means when the new version is closer to finalization.
Via GoodCleanTech
More on Energy Star:
Energy Star: Earth Day 2007 Giving Tree
More on Low Power Computers:
Interview: Verdiem, Making Computers Use Less Energy
The Cheaper PC, the Smaller PC, and the Greener PC
Dell Rings In Energy Star 4.0
This is great, and definitely of significant benefit to the average consumer.
But it would be much more useful (to those of us who know more about those boxes on our desks) if they displayed power consumption information for each major component of the computer. CPUs and graphics cards are the major power hogs, followed by the monitor. It is easy to find the power demands of a CPU online, but much harder for graphics cards and monitors. It would be equally cool if they listed the efficiency of the power supply; most OEMs use crappy and inefficient power supplies because they are cheaper up front, but they end up costing the consumer quite a bit.
What would really be of help in reducing computer power consumption in homes would be better designed and less bloated software. Word processing, reading e-mail, and watching DVDs doesn't take the power of an Intel Core 2 Extreme processor, but I assure you in the next couple of years, that level of processing power will become the norm whether people use it or not. We could instead take advantage of smaller transistors to reduce power use exponentially. We could also have more cores running at lower speed, for the same overall performance as we have today but with less power.
I'dlike to see Energy Star and power consumption ratings for computer components as well as pre-bulit machines. That way those of us who buld our own computers can make better choices when wanting to buy power saving componets. Often, I have to guess.
One of the main reasons my husband and I build our computers is in order to uprecycle the old components/hardware to others (sometimes between our machines and other times to family/friends/students/charity organizations)instead of chucking a whole computer when upgrading is necessary for our computer-related jobs.