Cost
From TheStudentWiki
Introduction
With the ever growing use of computers in every day life, there has been a dramatic increase in energy consumption, most of which is put to waste by needlessly leaving the computer on continuously. Not only is this costing a fortune in electricity bills, which is the focus of this article, but is also costing us the earth that we live in!
To generate electricity we have to burn fossil fuels, which is polluting the air that we breathe by emitting carbon dioxide, sulphur and pollutants into the air.
This can lead to:
Respiratory disease
Smog
Acid rain
Global climate change!!!
DID YOU KNOW?
That just by leaving a computer on all day could cost a company up to £37 a year!
Switching a computer off at night and on a weekend reduces this amount to just £10 a year, saving enough energy to make almost 40,000 cups of coffee!!!
The savings we make by turning green help to fund the WWF conswervation charity. WWF
Savings
The actual amount that an individual or company saves by implementing “green computing” methods will vary according to each organisation, depending on (but not limited to):
• The size of the company (number of computers, peripherals and employees)
• The hardware they use (how energy efficient the technology is)
• The users of the hardware (efficiency with regards to energy saving)
• The company’s policy (with regards to green computing and good practices)
By simply turning off a computer terminal during periods when they are not used, (e.g. nights and weekends) the average user would save about £20 per year per PC owned. Although the monetary costs may not appear to be that great, but in energy terms the energy saved by just doing this simple task is equivalent to the energy needed to make nearly 35,000 cups of tea.
Another way that users can cut costs is by ensuring that all peripherals (Scanners, Printers e.t.c) are turned off whenever they are not needed rather than being left fully turned on when there is no use for them.
One other way in which users (mainly businesses in this case) can save money is by becoming what is known as a “Thin Client”. This is when the number of standard programmes needed for each computer is limited to only those that are needed to complete the users tasks, for example they could be limited to an internet browser and an office suite.
These applications are then stored and run from a central server which is linked to all terminals. By doing this the user could save up to £300 per computer in energy costs alone. Running terminals like this also cuts maintenance costs and improves reliability, so it provides even more savings for the users.
The most obvious way that an organisation can make savings would be to purchase “Green Computers”. These cost roughly the same as standard PCs and servers but they are designed and built in such a way that they save money for the user as they are more energy efficient. The actual amount saved by these computers varies by user, but on average they save the user a third to a half on their electricity bills, and will save the user a rough minimum of £250 in the computer’s lifetime.
[http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/analysis/2198994/going-green-cut-costs-3449133
http://www.axiomtech.co.uk/eco-computers
http://kotarski.co.uk/articles/green_computing.html ]
Recycling Costs
Many companies offer a great service of recycling your old computers instead of just being disposed inadequately. In Britain there is a great problem with electrical junk being dumped everywhere with over 2 million been dumped annually. The main bulk of this junk is computer hardware. As from the 1st of July companies who are earning from selling future electrical waste have to by law provide a service to customers by disposing their old equipment.
Different companies have different policies in order to abide by this law, for example Dell will pick up your old computer, monitor or equipment from your front door as soon as your new equipment is delivered.
This does not mean it has to be at the same exact time, you can actually have a couple days and book for your equipment to be collected. This service provided by Dell is not given by many other major companies for example Curry’s will deliver your new products straight to your door but will not pick up old equipment for recycling, that will have to be taken personally down to one of their shops.
When it’s a personal computer bought from Curry’s for example there is no problem in delivering to the shop, but if we are talking about a major company recycling their computers and introducing green computing they would have to hire a disposal company. Each company will give you different quotes but all of them ranging around the £80 to £100 mark for 10 computers. Computer Disposals.co.uk is a company that will dispose all of your computer equipment and peripherals for a minimum charge, with the greater amounts of computers delivered the lower the price per computer.
These two links below are two articles explaining about green computing and recycling. It also explains how many major worldwide companies are introducing green computing.
Return to Green computing
