Energy Reduction
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Contents |
Introduction
Energy Reduction
This is becoming extremely important in the business world. The more technology we use the higher our energy costs will be. Whether it’s a small business of 15 employees or a large business with over a 100 employees, there goal is the same to reduce the amount of energy being used by there IT systems.
In this article we will discuss the various ways in which you can reduce the amount of energy used, for example using energy star products. If 60,000 people have an energy star monitor with a standard sleep mode power management system, you would save enough energy in which you could use to power 4,000 homes for 1 year in America.
Can Green Computing Help Save The World?
Surprisingly to some the IT industry excluding devices such as DVD and CD players currently takes up in the region of about 2% of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions (http://news.independent.co.uk/business/analysis_and_features/article2656139.ece ), which is comparable to the airline industry. Most people nowadays use IT products on a daily basis which use energy, so therefore people have a duty to minimise energy reduced to its fullest, it may not save the world but it will contribute to help reduce emissions.
Legislations and Programmes
Through the years governments have constantly battled to reduce green house gasses emitted, Energy star 4.0 and TCO certification are clear examples of the efforts poised forwards.
Energy Star 4.0
Energy star 4.0 first began in 1992 as an attempt from the United States government environmental protection agency to promote energy efficient products. In the 20th of July 2007 further regulations were implemented which meant that the power supplies of systems had to be 80% efficient to qualify for the use of the energy star logo or else the products would have to re-qualify to be able to use the logo.
Further info visit http://www.energystar.gov/.
TCO Certification
Similar to their American counterparts TCO certification is a certificate issued by the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees, dated after the year in which the certificate was issued TCO was originally designed to rate computer monitors TCO has eventually branched off to other peripherals such as keyboards, mousse, mobile phones etc. Further information visit http://www.tcodevelopment.com/.
New Computer Efficiency Requirements
Under the new specifications, the requirements for 'Greener computing' include improved efficiency across all modes of a computer's operation, and requirse use of highly efficient internal and external power supplies.
On average, Energy Star qualifing computer equipment will be 65 Percent more efficient than conventional models.
Newly Designed CPUs from Intel Corporation and AMD, particularly those intended for use in laptops, have technology to automatically adjust the CPU voltages depending on the workload. This technology is called "SpeedStep" with intel processors, and "PowerNow!"/"Cool'n'Quiet" with AMD chips.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedStep
Examples of "Green" computers
Zonbu - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zonbu
Linutop - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linutop
Systemax Venture VE55 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemax
Everex Impact GC3502 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everex
Project Big Green
Many major corporations see energy reduction as an important matter; IBM has started a $1 billion per year project known as project big green, in order to increase energy efficiency. Data centre energy consumption is going to be reduced by using new technologies; plans have also been made to change client’s technology infrastructure into green data centres with energy savings about 42% per data centre.
Project big green has set up a five step approach in order to improve energy efficiency:
1. Diagnose
2. Build
3. Virtualize
4. Manage
5. Cool
You can find more information about IBM’s project green on
http://www.it-analysis.com/business/content.php?cid=9520
Tips to reduce Energy used by computers
There are a number of tips that can be used to reduce the amount of energy that is used by the computers. The tips that have been given below will not only save the electricity bills but it will also help you reduce the carbon prints. The tips that I have given are as follow:
Upgrade your old monitor
If you have got an old CRT monitor then it is recommended that you upgrade this to an LCD monitor and the simple reason for this is that the CRT monitor will uses twice as much energy as the LCD monitor would.
Turn off unused peripherals
If you are using your computer but you are not using your scanner or printer then it is recommended that you switch the printer and the scanner off and the simple reason for this is that these are attached to the computer and in standby mode and this will consume energy.
Enable energy saving settings
It also recommended that when ever you are using operating systems you go into the settings and you adjust the energy saving settings. As you can see that the screen shot that is showing below is showing that you can out your computer on standby or turning your computer off if no one is using it after a short while.
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