SUSTAINABLE HOME DESIGN
Making South African Homes More Environmentally Sustainable

Sustainable IT

Personal Computers | Build a Green PC | Buying in South Africa | Other Considerations | Recycling Computers | What Corporates Can Do

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Personal Computers

The latest version of Energy Star (Energy Star 4) come into practice in July 2007 (see under Household Appliances). This new version looks all components of a computer. It is highly recommended that you purchase a computer with this latest rating. Read more at:

RoHS certification, also mentioned under Household Appliances, should be looked for on all PC components purchased.

There is a standard for power supply efficiency called 80Plus (http://www.80plus.org/). Power supplies that conform to this standard have two features - they will only consume as much power as a computer needs (so if the PC only needs 300W, the power supply will only draw 300W from the mains, even if it's a 500W power supply), and it will be 80% efficient in doing so (so it will draw slightly more than 300W, but with a 20% tolerance, ie 360W in this example). Most power supplies are highly inefficient. Even if you can't buy an Energy Star 4 computer yet, you can buy an 80plus power supply. Note that Energy Star 4 includes the same rule for power supplies. Generally, power supplies designed to be 80plus certified are also quiet and RoHS certified.

TomsHardware, a famous technical computer website, have started to look at what power different components in PC's require. If you're wanting to reduce energy consumption in your PC, make sure you read these:

Build a Green PC

Want to build a Green PC your self? Read these articles:

DIY Solar powered PC:

Lenovo announce solar powered PC:

Info on energy efficient computer options:

Buying in South Africa

In SA the large brands will be the easiest to buy Energy Star compliant machines from (HP, Dell etc). From a components perspective you can try the following:

  • http://www.Axiz.co.za supply mostly lead free components
  • http://www.frontosa.co.za supply Antex and Enermax components (as mentioned on the 80plus site) - Antec also sell a plastic only case (vs. plastic and metal) - the Antec Solo.

Other Considerations

http://www.localcooling.com/?www.reghardware.co.uk/ have a Windows XP utility that allows you to set more power saving options than what's standard in Windows XP, and monitor the amount of electricity your computer is using.

Microsoft (disclaimer, one of the contributors to this site works for Microsoft) have produced a white paper about the new energy saving features in their new desktop OS Windows Vista

Recycling Computers

Please see under Reduce Reuse Recycle for information

What Corporates can do

Apart from applying everything that this site mentions when it comes to corporate building design (such as Adobe did in the US - spending a once off $250k and getting back over $200k a year in savings, see further below), there are specific things that corporates can do.

CIO Insight have an article titled "The Greening of the CIO" http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,1987063,00.asp?kc=EWWHNEMNL092806EOAD

Data Centres

Greening of the Data Centre is a top topic at the moment, as data centres consume vast amounts of energy for the servers and cooling required. Look at:

US Government start to look at regulation around power usage in data centres (this is going to affect all servers, rack, power, cooling etc designs used world wide)

Microsoft and Intel join the Green Grid consortium:

ZDnet have published a survey (sponsored by AMD) which asks 1177 organisations whether they consider power and cooling in the data center important

In addition ZDNET have run an online event (recorded here http://presentations.inxpo.com/Shows/ ZiffDavisEnterprise/VTS/04-24-07/Website/home.htm which covers Energy Efficient IT

In addition, AMD have released an article about how their technology will use less power in servers:

Micron have announced new low voltage (at same performance) server memory. According to Micron, memory accounts for about 1/5 of power usage in servers, and the new chips reduce memory power usage by up to 24%.

IBM launches five services and products to help businesses deal with the growing amount of energy needed to power and cool their data centers
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193200109

IBM roll out a line of low power servers
http://www.amdsolutions.ziffdavis.com/article/ IBM+Rolls+Out+LowPower+Servers/205111_1.aspx

IBM lunches more internal and external green services http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/22/ibm_project_big_green/

PC Mag’s Green Tech Expo http://ct2.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=42-827-620-1116-665128-206001-0-0-0-1-9-269 

Networked Computers

Products such as Microsoft's Active Directory and other similar network configuration systems can set the policy for computers (e.g. switch the monitor off after 20 minutes - see the Vista whitepaper mentioned above as an example).

Some companies offer enterprise management products that claim to make this easier, such as:

  • BigFix Offers PC Power Management ToolThe IT management company claims this new application, which works with BigFix's Enterprise Suite, can save companies up to $50 per computer in energy costs.http://ct.enews.eweek.com/rd/cts?d=186-4793-14-97-161938-556617-0-0-0-1
  • Verdiem offer a similar tool http://www.verdiem.com/
  • Addon to manage power and monitor CO2 usage on computers http://co2saver.snap.com/index.php 
  • Sustainable Computing: Conserving Energy with Group Policy
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc462804.aspx
    Enforcing a power management strategy on the systems throughout your entire organization can add up to substantial savings. And Windows Vista includes 35 power management settings that you can configure and enforce with Group Policy. Here is some guidance for configuring some of the more common settings. –By Mark Aggar, Pat Stemen, and Michael Walsh
  • Sustainable Computing: Sleep or Hibernate?
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc462803.aspx
    Leaving your computer on when it’s not in use is a waste of energy. Features like Sleep and Hibernate make it easy to power down your system when you’re not using it, and these features are more reliable now than in previous versions of Windows.  Here’s a look at the differences between these features and some best practices for configuring them. –By Mark Aggar, Megan Morrone, and Michael Walsh

Examples