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REDUCE THE ENERGY USED BY YOUR COMPUTER PDF Print E-mail

Computers used by Australian Businesses generated 7.9 million tonnes of carbon dieoxide in 2005. Total ICT use by business counts for around 1.5% of Australia's emissions. Source: Australian Computer Society, Reported in BRW 30-8-7 page 21

WWF/ Climate Savers guide to green computing

IBM Compatible Computers - PC's

Screen Shutdown
Rather than have your PC display pretty pictures to an empty seat, set it to turn itself off when not used.
(For Windows go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, Display, Screen Saver, Power, Turn off monitor / Turn off hard disks).
The ANZ bank shaved nearly 4% off their power usage by this technique alone.

BIOS Settings
Some PC's will allow you to set power savings at the BIOS level.
To access BIOS power settings boot your PC and press the 'Del' or 'Delete' key when you see the black screen that has a message about pressing 'Del' to get into the BIOS. Once you see the BIOS or CMOS setup screen go to the power settings if there is an option.
There are several settings and only someone who knows what they are doing should proceed to change any. Adjusting the hard drive off settings here will switch the drives off regardless of the windows settings.
Changing the hard drive power off settings can sometimes interfere with programs that may want to access the hard drive while you are absent from the PC such as a backup that takes a long time. If you are not confident about changing the BIOS settings then ask someone who is. It's possible to really mess up your computer by changing some of the other BIOS settings.

Auto switch off software
Turning computers off is a habit that doesn't come easily for many people in today's busy working life and free utilities are available to do the work for you so you don't forget. There are ones that work on the whole computer and ones that act on just the screen. Visit http://www.computersoff.org/ for different programs.
For your whole computer;

For just the screen;

Thin Client Network
Thin-client devices generally consume only between 1/5th and 1/12th of the energy of their PC counterparts. And while the requirement for an increased number of central servers may offset a small part of these energy savings, organizations with remote offices can often eliminate servers in those offices entirely, enabling still greater net reductions in electricity usage.
Thin-client devices often have no hard drives, no fans, and only small processing power, meaning they are much smaller and need less materials to manufacture (costing less as well). When replaced this means less waste, bulk and transport. More info. Example

Climate Prediction Model
Running a climate model in the background on your computer won't slow it down and will help the Hadley Institute of Britain to model different Climate Change scenarios. You will need a modern computer that is on for at least four hours a day and a cable or ADSL internet connection. Climateprediction.net is the largest experiment to try and produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century. Run a climate model on your PC by going to http://climateprediction.net/

Recycle your computer at Byte Back www.bytebackaustralia.com.au or www.cleanup.org.au

5 Energy Efficiency Tips rom Michael Dell of Dell Computers;

  1. CEOs must be engaged in developing strategies. A top-down energy efficiency strategy works better than a bottom- or middle-up one.
  2. Consolidating data centers and virtualization are logical first steps.
  3. Make sure the IT and facilities departments both understand the metrics that are being used to measure the savings and have ironed out a way to share those savings.
  4. Energy conservation is not a project for just one quarter or one fiscal year.
  5. Supply chain or procurement partners should be held to the same green standards as your company

Directory of Energy Efficient computing equipment is available at www.epeat.net.

WWF report on green IT