In this
issue:
-
Going Green!
-
Reducing
Your Energy Usage
-
Make the
Most of What You Have and Reuse What
You Can
-
Recycling and Retrofitting
-
Conclusion
-
For More Green Information
-
Energy Saving Tips That Will Save You
Money Now!
-
Power Tips
Going Green!
A wise Kermit the
Frog once said, “It isn’t easy being
green.” Well, when you are talking about
computing, it takes a little effort, but
you can keep more green stuff in your
wallet while you benefit the
environment.
Three green ideas
apply to most situations:
-Reduce: Reduce the
amount of energy you use. Reduce the
amount of materials you use.
-Reuse: Repurpose
what you have to do another job. Give or
sell your equipment to someone else so
that they can make use of the
components.
-Recycle: Deliver
your equipment to someone who can
recycle or safely dispose of the
components.
Reducing Your
Energy Usage
To be “green,” save
money, enhance your safety, and prevent
debilitating and expensive
infrastructure upgrades, saving power is
key.
First, a little
background is needed. The kilowatt hour
is standard unit of electrical
measurement. A typical 60W bulb burns up
0.06 kilowatts in an hour (KWh). Typical
electrical costs here are over 10
cents/KWh and many electric companies
charge much more, especially if you
reach certain high usage levels. So,
that light bulb costs at least $52/year
if you have it on all the time. Your
father was right when he yelled at you
for leaving all the lights on! It isn’t
uncommon for “excess usage” to be billed
at more than 20 cents/KWh. Saving only a
little energy could save you a
considerable amount of money over time.
Current estimates are that computing
equipment consumes up to 40% of the
energy in a typical building.
Newer technologies
can have many benefits. Cathode Ray Tube
(CRT) monitors are much larger and
heavier than Liquid Crystal Display
(LCD) monitors. More materials means
more to recycle. CRTs also can also
implode or deliver high voltages, so
LCDs are safer. CRTs also use more
energy. A Viewsonic G90fB CRT monitor
draws over 100W while a 19” V950b LCD
with a larger display area draws only
32W. Even if you could fit the CRT on
your desk, you would be paying almost
$60 a year less to run the LCD. This
assumes they would be on all the time.
This assumption isn’t as unusual as you
might expect as many people use screen
savers that keep the monitor active. It
is quite possible that if you replaced a
perfectly good CRT on your desk with a
new LCD monitor, you would save enough
on your power bills to pay for the new
LCD within a few years. That new LCD
would probably also have a bigger
viewable area and take up less desk
space.
Most home and
commercial circuits are designed to
carry either 15 or 20 Amps of electrical
load. Look at the socket. If it you see
two parallel holes with a circle
underneath, that is a 15A outlet. The
20A outlet has a sideways T next to a
parallel line with a circle underneath.
Unfortunately, even newly constructed
homes and businesses didn’t take into
account the load computers might place
on them. The two or four sockets on a
single faceplate almost always share the
same circuit. In addition, it is quite
common to put many faceplates in one or
more rooms on the same circuit. The
lights might be tied into that same
circuit as well. With all these
available outlets, it is easy to see how
you might be able to plug in too much
gear for the circuit. If you do, you
risk tripping the breaker, causing a
fire, rebooting equipment, corrupting
data, and other horrible repercussions.
The less power your device takes, the
better your infrastructure can handle
it.
Some of our clients
can’t put any more computers into their
data closets because they lack the power
and cooling capacity. Computing
equipment is drawing so much power that
some major data centers haven’t used up
all of their floor space, but have used
up all of their power. On an even larger
scale, communities may have to build new
power plants to keep up with the power
draw. A single large data center takes
the same amount of power as 10,000 homes
and it runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week!
Fortunately, there
are a number of measures you can take to
lower your power bill. First, buy
products that draw less power. Computer
manufacturers had been focusing on power
and capacity over all else, but their
products were becoming less reliable
because they couldn’t be cooled
efficiently. Their customers also
belatedly figured out how much money
they were paying to power this
equipment. Customers couldn’t put much
equipment in one place because it got
too hot or they would end up overloading
their circuits. Newer products are being
produced that not only have more power
and capacity, but also draw less energy
and produce less heat than older
products.
Consider buying fewer
computers to do what you need. Many of
our clients use a laptop to do almost
all of their computing. Laptops have
unique advantages when it comes to
power. First, they are designed to draw
as little power as possible. Second,
they have a battery so that they will
still run if the power goes out, so an
uninterruptible power supply isn’t
needed for a laptop. Third, you can
easily move them around, so you might
not need a computer for each location.
Software can also be
a way to save energy and money over the
long run:
-Modern operating
systems have power saving features built
into them.
-Rather than run
separate computers, with new, higher
powered processors and lots of RAM and
hard disk space you can run multiple
virtual computers on a single physical
computer. This is done most often on
servers. It is not uncommon to see eight
or more virtual servers on a single
physical server.
-You could also use a
single piece of hardware to perform
multiple functions. Our Internet
firewall also serves as a secure server
for POP/SMTP mail, anti-spam and
anti-virus filtering, DNS, DHCP, FTP,
HTTP (web), SMB file sharing, mailing
lists, and other services.
-Using hardware and
software, you can also virtualize your
storage space. Instead of having to over
build to allow for storage growth, you
can share the storage of multiple
servers and use fewer hard disks to do
so while saving power and money.
You might want to
consider even more “radical”
alternatives. A smart phone with a
portable keyboard may be all a road
warrior really needs. Or, you might want
to consider a network terminal. These
devices are very secure and draw
miniscule amounts of electric power, yet
may be powerful enough for you to run
everything you want. Or, you may want to
let an employee work from home. Then
they will be using their own space,
cooling, and electric power. With space
costs alone at $20 per square foot and
up, a 10x10 foot cubicle costs $2000 per
year even before you start heating,
cooling, or powering the space. And, did
we forget to mention that employee
satisfaction tends to improve,
productivity tends to improve, commute
time is cut to zero giving employees an
effective “raise” (in the DC area, this
would REALLY improve employee
satisfaction), and you can recover more
easily from a disaster?
Make the Most of
What You Have and Reuse What You Can
One of the keys to making an
environmentally smart and wallet smart
purchase is to think of your equipment
as having a life cycle. For example,
which is the smarter buy, a $1000
computer you figure will last you 3
years or a more capable $1500 computer
that will last you 5 years? Per year,
the more capable computer will cost you
less. Also, if you ever need extra
computing power, it will be there, you
won’t have to go out and buy it. You
have also lowered the grief and expense
of buying a new computer for two years.
If you have a longer useful lifetime for
an item, it not only is better for the
environment, it saves you money in the
long run.
Proper maintenance
and support can increase the reliability
of your equipment, lengthen its useful
life, and allow it to do more work in
less time. For example, a client
complained of slow Internet access on
all of his computers and that one of his
machines that was fairly new was almost
unusable because it was so slow. The
slow computer turned out to be almost
completely full of music files and
backup files and had little space left
for actual work. It was also running
lots of unnecessary programs as soon as
it started up, including programs to
listen to radio over the Internet and
pull down rotating pictures for the
desktop over the Internet. Once the
machine was cleaned up, the unnecessary
programs removed, and the hard disk
optimized, performance increased over
400% and Internet access speed improved
for everyone on the network. Performance
optimizing software kept that machine
running well. Extending the life of a
useful machine is more cost effective
and environmentally sound than buying a
new one.
At Iron Horse, we
have some very old equipment that is
still in operation. In fact, we retired
one machine that had been in operation
from 1992 to 2006. It was a 486DX2/33
computer running Windows 3.11 for
Workgroups. It started out as a “super
powerful” personal computer that I used
as my own workstation and ended up as a
network fax server. My parents now use a
former Iron Horse machine that is at
least 10 years old to surf the web and
download e mail. Iron Horse’s very
powerful firewall and multi-function
secure server I mentioned above runs on
a machine that is at least 7 years old.
At 128MB, it doesn’t even have enough
memory to run Windows XP. Old equipment
may still be useful.
When Iron Horse has
wrung what use it can out of its
hardware and software, we donate to
schools or charities that still might be
able to use it. We also internally
recycle computer components and put old
cabling, optical drives, floppy drives,
face plates, and fans into new machines.
Sometimes a simple
hardware upgrade can improve performance
markedly while saving energy. A Windows
machine with too little memory will
constantly exercise the hard disk. The
hard disk is thousands of times slower
than using RAM. Adding enough RAM
increases performance at the same time
it saves energy and wear and tear on
your hard disk.
Recycling and
Retrofitting
Once we have
stretched our computing dollar as far as
it will go, we dispose of our equipment.
We recycle all of our toners and UPS
batteries through manufacturer programs.
Empty toner cartridges can be refilled
and used by someone else. We also use a
Xerox Phaser 8560 for some of our
printing needs. The ink sticks it uses
take very little storage space and
produce 1/40th the waste of a typical
laser printer. UPS batteries contain
strong acids and lead. They are
hazardous waste, so dispose of them
responsibly.
Unfortunately, too
much hazardous electronic waste enters
the waste stream every year. Luckily, my
local community has started to recognize
the electronic waste problem. They are
publicizing proper disposal strategies
and giving citizens a way to easily
recycle their old computer equipment.
See if yours does the same.
I know of an
innovative contracting method that the
federal government uses called “share in
savings.” They have contractors retrofit
buildings for more energy efficiency and
then pay those contractors a portion of
what they save on their utility bills
over many years. The government doesn't
pay for the retrofit and saves money on
its energy bills as soon as the project
is completed, and the company doing the
retrofit benefits financially as well.
Conclusion
We have only
scratched the surface here on how you
can help save the environment while
saving cash. If you want to know more
about how you can do both in your
environment, talk to us. We might even
entertain the thought of providing
“free” equipment and services to you
which would be paid for by your savings
down the road.
For More Green
Information
www.energystar.gov - Energy Star
started with computing equipment, but
now helps consumers buy all manner of
energy efficient devices, like
refrigerators and heating and cooling
systems.
www.80plus.org - This site is all
about high efficiency power supplies.
www.epeat.net - The federal
government also uses this strict system
for buying environmentally friendly
computing equipment in many of its
contracts. Non-business computing
products are unlikely to be listed here.
www.rohs.gov.uk This international
standard is all about keeping toxic
materials out of your equipment.
Energy Saving Tips
That Will Save You Money Now!
-Turn off or unplug
your speakers. Most people rarely use
them in an office and you can plug them
in when needed.
-Turn off equipment
when it isn’t in use. In fact, you can
improve your security if you cut your
power to your Internet connection when
it isn’t needed.
-Use the power saving
modes on your system. Systems in sleep
and hibernation mode use far less power
than machines that are always running.
-Don’t forget your
printers. Lasers, especially older ones,
pull as much or more power than five
desktops. Turn them off when they aren’t
going to be used. New generation lasers
are much more power friendly. In some
cases it can pay to replace a laser that
is functioning perfectly with a new one
that uses fewer resources.
-Space heaters,
coffee pots, air conditioners and
refrigerators draw more power than most
lasers and PCs. Use them judiciously.
Power Tips:
-Often the only way
to reliably map what is on a circuit is
to trip the breaker.
-An outlet tester
will cost you less than $10 and tell you
whether an outlet is wired correctly.
You can also use it when tripping
breakers to map what outlets belong to
particular circuits.
-Use a meter like the
Kill-A-Watt meter to help you determine
power draw over time for a device.
-Many UPSs come with
software that can show you exactly how
much electricity you are drawing and
give you information about the
reliability of that electricity over
time.