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Green Geekery
Jun. 21st, 2005 09:30 amI stumbled upon this article at Tom's Hardware:
Power-efficient PC
The article points out how neat it is to have a computer that can be cool, and compact, and low power yet have good performance (You could just buy a Mac, I know...) However, I began to wonder about the wider implications, having been brought up in that tree-hugging continent of Europe.
Computers in the US have this Energy Star logo which says the government is proud that these devices are power-saving. What it really means is that they can turn off the monitor as part of the screen saver. Now, imagine, if all business computers were instead built on Pentium Ms. Not servers, just the desktops that litter the desks of secretaries, accountants, student employees and such. Current systems take around 300 watts. Pentium M systems would take about 50 watts, even with disk drives. At USF alone, we have well over 10,000 of these computers, using a very conservative estimate. Those computers alone would save 250,000 watts. If the computers went into standby at night (currently all computers remain on 24/7, partly because of habit, partly because patches and such can be pushed to them at night without interrupting people's work), those power savings would grow even higher. And this is just direct power. Practically every watt that doesn't heat up the computer also doesn't heat up the office and doesn't have to be air-conditioned away, so the total savings might well be over double of that figure.
If people really are concerned about the environment and the excessive use of energy, this'd be a pretty darn good way to start!
Power-efficient PC
The article points out how neat it is to have a computer that can be cool, and compact, and low power yet have good performance (You could just buy a Mac, I know...) However, I began to wonder about the wider implications, having been brought up in that tree-hugging continent of Europe.
Computers in the US have this Energy Star logo which says the government is proud that these devices are power-saving. What it really means is that they can turn off the monitor as part of the screen saver. Now, imagine, if all business computers were instead built on Pentium Ms. Not servers, just the desktops that litter the desks of secretaries, accountants, student employees and such. Current systems take around 300 watts. Pentium M systems would take about 50 watts, even with disk drives. At USF alone, we have well over 10,000 of these computers, using a very conservative estimate. Those computers alone would save 250,000 watts. If the computers went into standby at night (currently all computers remain on 24/7, partly because of habit, partly because patches and such can be pushed to them at night without interrupting people's work), those power savings would grow even higher. And this is just direct power. Practically every watt that doesn't heat up the computer also doesn't heat up the office and doesn't have to be air-conditioned away, so the total savings might well be over double of that figure.
If people really are concerned about the environment and the excessive use of energy, this'd be a pretty darn good way to start!
