When the latest Energy Star requirements for computers came into effect last year - Energy Star is a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) run programme - what wasn’t widely reported was the agency’s power management enabling goals for computers.
The EPA’s goal nationally is to achieve a 40% power management enabling rate by 2010; by 2012 that would increase to 60%, and by 2014 that rate would be equal to or greater than 80%.
By extrapolating those numbers backwards, the enabling rate today would be 20%. Whatever the current figure is, improvements need to be made.
To show how bad this power management enabling rate has been, a 2004 EPA document highlighted that only about five percent of computers were enabled in the commercial sector, and that the residences number was probably low as well.
The computer types that are covered by these goals are desktop computers, desktop-derived servers, games consoles, integrated computers, notebook and tablet computers and workstations.
The EPA has said that power management can save between $25 to $75 in annual energy costs for each computer. So for a household with four computers that saving could be as high as $300.
With such a huge number of computers in need of enablement, the EPA will have to run a continuous campaign to ensure that its goals are met.
But the EPA won’t be able to achieve these goals on its own. So if power management isn’t enabled on your computer then it’s now time to get with the programme.
Enabling power management
Since each OS is different, I have linked the Climate Savers power management instructions guide, as that makes activation easy as each step is shown with accompanying screen shots. The operating systems covered are Windows 9x to Vista and Mac OS 9 & 10. Make sure you read the rest of the page, as you won’t want to miss the energy saving tips.
For the record, I’ve reset both of the PCs within my home to the following: monitor turn off time is now five minutes and the hard drive is ten.
For those who don’t want to manually enable power saving on their computer can instead use EZ Wizard, which is a software tool that automatically activates these settings. But this tool currently only supports Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
There are other things that can be done which will conserve our precious resources. If you work for a company, shut the PC down and turn the monitor off during lunch and when the work day is over. At home, do the same when you have finished using the computer.
Business isn’t exempt
An EPA power management report from 2005 discussed the potential energy savings of the greater than 90 million desktop computers that are used in the commercial sector. It was said in part that:
With night time updates and maintenance, half or more may be left on 24/7. If all power managed, US would save 25 billion KWh, equivalent to:
- Saving $1.8 billion
- Lighting over 20 million homes annually (all the homes of NY and CA combined)
- Preventing 18 million tons of carbon dioxide (emissions of over 3 million cars)
There are software tools that can help. Verdiem is a developer of power management software. The company’s Surveyor software has been designed to manage, measure and reduce the energy consumption of computers that are connected to a network.
EZ GPO is a free software tool for network administrators who run Windows Active Directory and manage client computers using Group Policy Objects. This software allows power management settings in Windows XP and Windows 2000 to be centrally configured.
An EPA server efficiency report from last year said that the energy consumption of servers and data centres had doubled in the last five years and would most likely double again during the next five years. The agency also said that energy consumption could be reduced by an estimated 25% by using existing technologies, and that advanced technologies could increase those savings further.
Buying a new PC
When the EPA announced its new Energy Star specification for computers, the agency said: “Under the new specifications, only the most energy-efficient computer related equipment will earn the Energy Star label, representing the top of their class.”
The EPA has also said: “By requiring efficiency savings across operating modes, the new computer specification is expected to save consumers and businesses more than $1.8 billion in energy costs over the next 5 years and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equal to the annual emissions of 2.7 million vehicles.”
So if you’re in the market for a new PC, make sure that it has earned its Energy Star laurels. There is a downloadable Excel list that shows Energy Star compliant computers. This list covers models that are available in Australia and New Zealand, the US and Canada, Taiwan and Japan and the European Union as well.
How will the EPA achieve its laudable goals?
Over the years, the EPA has run a bunch of campaigns. Remember MMD - the million monitor drive - the goal of that was to enable power management on one million monitors annually. That campaign was launched in 2001; by 2005, 6.4 million monitors had become part of MMD. So that campaign was a success.
But the EPA’s future power management goals for computers looks to be a reach if the agency is relying on the nation’s good will for success. These goals though might be achieved through a tax break.
For every computer that met the requirements a $5 tax break would be given. For every year after a $1 amount would follow. So the initial tax break is large enough to get people onboard, and the smaller amounts that follow would be a token appreciation of their continued support.
To confirm compliance a PC installed programme would check the computer and then inform the regulatory body. If it’s not in compliance the PC user would have a period of time to make it right. If it’s not fixed then the tax break would be lost.
Energy conservation really isn’t a big deal for most people. But if every computer was configured to save energy then the total saving would be huge.
So when all is said and done there really is no excuse for us as individuals or as businesses to not do our part to help conserve resources that are finite. X
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