Energy and Cost Savings through Green ICT

by Thomas Quinn

Were you aware that enabling standby or sleep mode when PC's are inactive during business hours can achieve a 20 percent reduction in electricity consumption and result in an average savings of almost $50 per year per PC?

Information and communications technology (ICT) has become a significant source of energy consumption. ICT equipment now makes up about 5.3 percent of global electricity use and more than 9 percent of the total U.S. electricity demand. The International Energy Agency predicts that the energy consumed by ICT worldwide will double by 2022 and increase three fold by 2030 to 1,700 tera (trillion) watt hours. This will require the addition of nearly 280 giga (billion) watts of new generating capacity over the next twenty years, equivalent to the additional electricity demands of over 3,000,000 U.S. homes for an entire year!

ICT has the obvious potential to play a critical role in reducing energy waste and increasing energy efficiency throughout the economy. Both large and small businesses have realized that the rising cost of energy is a pressing issue and have begun to invest in Green ICT. The goal of Green ICT is to increase environmental sustainability throughout the entire ICT lifecycle along the following four complimentary paths:

Green use – reducing the energy consumed by existing ICT devices

Green disposal – refurbishing and reusing old computers and properly recycling unwanted computers and other electronic equipment

Green design – designing energy-efficient and environmentally sound components, computers, servers, cooling equipment, and data centers

Green manufacturing – manufacturing electronic components, computers, and other associated subsystems with minimal impact on the environment

How Much Energy Cost Can Be Saved From One PC?

For the smallest of companies, the determining factor for any green initiative may simply be the cost justification to purchase newer, more energy efficient equipment. Let's use an example of two PC's, one is an energy "hog," the other a more modest, efficiently used PC. The "hog" is a high-end computer with an old CRT monitor which you leave on 24/7. That's about 330 watts x 24 hours x 365 days/yr = 2,890,800 watt-hours, or 2891 kilowatt-hours. If you're paying 14¢ per kWh, then you're paying $405 a year to run this computer. The "modest" PC will use about 105 watts and assumes you're smart enough to hibernate or turn it off when you're not using it. Assuming you use it for two hours a day, five days a week. That's ten hours a week, or 520 hours a year. 105 watts times 520 hours = 54,600 watt-hours (equals 54.6 kilowatt-hours kWh). If you're paying 14¢ per kilowatt-hour, then you're paying just $7.64 a year to run this computer, what a savings!

What Is The Effect Of Sleep and Screensavers Settings?

When your computer sleeps (aka "standby" or "hibernate"), it uses between 0-6 watts of power. Setting your computer to auto-sleep is the best and easiest way to save on energy use and can automatically be set to sleep after a certain amount of idle time. It's not terribly important to understand the difference between Sleep, Standby, and Hibernate. In a nutshell, hibernate saves your workspace (all the open windows) and then turns your computer off, so it saves more energy than standby, but a hibernating computer takes longer to wake up. Different from both of these modes is when a screensaver is used that simply shows an image on the screen during inactivity. This does not save any energy at all as both the PC and monitor are still running normally. You can turn the monitor off at the switch and it will only use 0 to 10 watts (some equipment draw a small amount of energy even when they are switched off).

Easiest “Green ICT" Recommendations Set the power settings on your computer to automatically go into Sleep/Standby mode after 15 minutes or so of inactivity. If you do nothing else, do this. If you use a desktop with a CRT monitor, think about replacing it with a LCD monitor which uses significantly less energy. Turn your computer off when you're done for the day. If given the choice, select a laptop computer as they use a lot less energy than desktops. If you are feeling crazy, purchase a special power strip that automatically cuts power to peripherals when you turn your computer off.

Looking For More Savings?

Look for the “Green” box in future issues for more energy and cost saving tips. Need help with your company Green ICT initiative? Contact Insyte Consulting at 716.636.3626.

Thomas Quinn is an Insyte consultant with over 20 years experience in Information and Communications Technology.