posted on June 17, 2007 03:44:23 PM new
Hi, guys: This is long but it definitely applies to our eBay business, etc., so I'm justifying posting it here. See the information on how much wattage our computers pull. It was an eyeopener for me, but perhaps you all have heard this information before. In that case, feel free to ignore the message. ~Adele
Putting Energy Hogs in the Home on a Strict Low-Power Diet
By LARRY MAGID
Published: June 14, 2007
I THOUGHT I was pretty good about energy conservation, but it turns out that I’ve been a bit of a hypocrite. I drive a reasonably fuel-efficient car, I work at home so I don’t use fuel to commute and I am replacing incandescent bulbs in my home with energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs.
But I am also a prodigious computer user, and it looks as if that makes me an energy hog. I started checking how much electricity my electronics were consuming when I wasn’t using them. I used a Kill A Watt EZ energy meter (available online for about $25) and began measuring. My PC was continuously drawing 134 watts all night.
The more devices I checked, the worse it got. My TiVo digital video recorder was sucking down about 30 watts when it was not playing or recording a show. . . . My DVD player was drawing 26 watts while idle, and my audio system — which I rarely turned off — was using 47 watts. This was in addition to the numerous power adapters and chargers, each drawing 1 or 2 watts, not to mention several other devices sipping energy to keep clocks running or to be ready to turn on at the push of a button.
I’m partly to blame for the audio system and DVD player. They do have on/off switches that I was failing to use. I had falsely assumed they were using relatively little power. But I tested DVR’s from Comcast, Dish Network and TiVo, and none went into a low-power mode. All of this wasted power was costing me money and pumping unnecessary CO2 into the atmosphere. My PC alone was contributing 2,000 pounds of CO2 annually. The DVR. was adding another 543 pounds.
Indeed, the Department of Energy estimates that in the average home, 40 percent of all electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off. Add that all up, and it equals the annual output of 17 power plants, the government says. In an effort to address that, a consortium of Intel, Google, PC makers and other technology companies this week announced their intent to increase the PC’s overall energy efficiency to 90 percent.
Products that idle in what the industry calls low-power mode, or lopomo, consumed about 10 percent of total electricity in California homes, according to a 2002 study prepared for the California Energy Commission by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. A few of those devices, even those with Energy Star ratings that signal that they are less wasteful, still use a lot of power. “Some of the larger big-screen TVs consume as much energy each year as a new refrigerator,” according to Noah Horowitz, a scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
You do not have to use an energy meter to reduce your consumption. If you don’t turn off your PC when it is not in use, make sure it goes into a low-power sleep, suspend or hibernate mode. That doesn’t always happen automatically. If it is a notebook PC, there are separate settings for when it runs on the battery and when it is plugged in.
Microsoft says that it has overhauled energy management in its Vista operating system so that machines, by default, should go into a low-power state after 60 minutes of inactivity. The PC sips only a few watts until the user touches the mouse or keyboard. To configure a machine with Vista, type “Power Options” in the search box at the bottom of the Start menu and click on “Change when the computer sleeps.”
All of this, of course, assumes that the systems are working correctly. When I first installed Vista on my PC, I configured it to go to sleep after 30 minutes, but it has been unreliable. Sometimes it fails to go to sleep, and at other times it fails to wake up. Sometimes I experience the worst of both worlds: the drives and fan are spinning, but the monitor is blank, and I cannot get the machine to come back to life without powering it down and turning it back on.
I spent numerous hours trying to fix the problem, including updating the BIOS, installing up-to-date versions of all my device drivers, checking to make sure there were no unnecessary applications running in the background and, of course, scanning for spyware and viruses. The results were encouraging. After all that fiddling, the machine went to sleep most nights and woke up most — but not all —mornings.
I then installed Co2 Saver (co2saver.snap.com), a free program for Windows XP and Vista that seems to have solved the problem. It gives you a simple control panel to specify when to turn off monitors and disk drives and put the machine to sleep. It also adjusts some hard-to-configure settings. One option forces the machine to “Initiate sleep mode if system doesn’t sleep automatically.” This feature, according to its developer, Lee Hasiuk, defeats Windows attempts to keep a machine awake if it thinks (correctly or otherwise) that it is detecting a background task other than mouse or keyboard activity. Now my machine sleeps and wakes properly almost all the time.
Whatever machine you’re using, consider having it go into sleep, standby or hibernate after about a half-hour of inactivity. The shorter the period, the more energy you save. Graphic-intense screen savers can actually waste power.
Unplug unused external power supplies because they can draw energy even when they’re not connected to a device. . . .
Use an L.C.D. screen instead of an old-fashioned cathode ray tube monitor. L.C.D.’s are as much as 66 percent more efficient than C.R.T.’s, according to the Energy Department. . . .
Tweaking can pay off. Annually, my desktop PC is now using 73 percent less energy — saving me $119 a year and depriving the earth of 1,405 more pounds of CO2.
_____________________
There is more to life than increasing its speed. --Mahatma Gandhi
posted on June 17, 2007 06:58:57 PM new
I'm with Classic here. I shut mine down. Your machine will last a lot longer if you do. Power supplies do wear out. It drives me crazy when Ken leaves his on all night. There's no reason for it unless you plan on getting up in the middle of the night to play on your computer.
posted on June 17, 2007 07:57:43 PM new
Where I work we are not allowed to turn our computers off, the I T people tell us they last longer that way. Who knows. But it would save electricity.
posted on June 17, 2007 09:17:45 PM new
I never leave my computer on overnight, or when I'm going to be away from it for more than 2 hours. During the day, however, I need to have it in the "sleep" mode so I can quickly go to work as I have a few minutes here or there. I'm in and out of my ebay office 12 or more times a day, checking on e-mail or dealing with buyers, listing on eBay or Amazon, etc.
After reading the article, my husband has begun doing the same as I, putting it in sleep mode if he'll be back within an hour or two.
_____________________
There is more to life than increasing its speed. --Mahatma Gandhi
My machines all sleep after 15 minutes of non use and spin down their hard drives as well. Sleeping the monitor is only part of the issue. That HD needs to sleep too. Unix based machines like the ones I use are designed to run continuously and not be shut down. There are cleanup operations (temp files, caches etc.) which are emptied at 3 a.m. typically and don't happen if the machine is off. Your hot water heater that spends most of it's time reheating water over and over is a much larger part of the problem than your computer.
posted on June 17, 2007 10:01:12 PM new
Good article roadsmith.
I turn my laptop off when I'm not using it.
There is some truth about leaving computers on to save power, but I'm not sure just how much if any.
When you first turn it on, & that goes for anything using electricity, there is an initial power surge that sucks up a lot of electricity.
The rule of thumb about lights is to leave them on if you will be getting back to them within 20 minutes. If you'll be gone longer then turn them off.
Not sure if this is true about computers.
80% of the bulbs in my house are now compact fluroescent bulbs. The ones that aren't are in the cellar, garage & bathroons where they are not used as much.
posted on June 18, 2007 07:23:26 AM new
I had a computer that went into sleep mode once and never did wake up. It was like it was in a coma, no way to get it to turn on. I had to trash it and buy a new computer. I will never use sleep mode again.
Those compact fluroescent bulbs are crap, no wonder they use less electric, they make very poor light. I use only one as a kitchen nightlight, that's all they are good for.
My electric bill hasn't increased in 8 years, but the price of my propane has doubled! Once the price of propane hits 2.25 a gallon, it will be cheaper to heat with electric.
posted on June 18, 2007 08:32:31 AM new
If you don't like the compact fluorescent bulbs you may be in trouble. I read that incandescent bulbs have been phased out in the EU and that the same is down the road in the US.
We have them in several places and I notice that they come on dim but build brightness over time. We were told that using them with a dimmer switch will cause them to go bad quick. If they do become standard wonder if that will be addressed.
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
posted on June 18, 2007 09:59:25 AM new
We, too, have the compacts everywhere we can use them, while still using up some of our old incandescents in areas where we don't need light very often. Even our porch lights are fluorescents. There are some lamps, though, that can't take the compacts; the kind with the clip on shade that just fits over the bulb. I'll remember that next time I have to get a lamp.
Yes, they light up slowly but we get plenty of light from them. The trick, for people just starting out, is to get the equivalent incandescent wattage in the fluorescent bulb.
_____________________
There is more to life than increasing its speed. --Mahatma Gandhi
posted on June 18, 2007 10:00:34 AM new
Just like a car, a computer gets most of its "wear and tear" when you power-up, but for most people this is not a REAL issue because Most people tend to replace their computer's either when they stop working for software issues (viruses, Malware, disk crashes, etc.) or when there is a piece of software they want to use that they can not. The 40 computers in my classroom are all 9 years old. They work, but they are getting rather rickety. Those 6mb hard drives are full, and that 64m of memory gets used up pretty quickly once I start using modern software. I should have 12 new computer and a new server come September, but the other 28 will take a while to replace.
posted on June 18, 2007 04:32:20 PM new
I have a low-power computer that only uses 30W when the hard disk, DVDs and fans are off. It runs all day. I know from experience servicing large networks that most computers die at startup, and switching computers off overnight usually shortens the life of certain components compared to those that are (almost) always on.
Every six months I reinstall the OS and do a hardware strip down and clean out the dust bunnies, grease the fans, etc. My computer is approaching 10 years old, but working better than the day I bought it. I've maxed out the RAM, upgraded the CPU and added a DVD and CD burner plus a second hard drive for very little money.
posted on June 18, 2007 07:34:10 PM new
Refrigerators, Air conditioners,,Freezers,,HOTWATER HEATERS (Elecrtic) and Incadecent Light bulbs are what EAT up electricity.......MOTOR driven,,,, stuff, Vacum cleaners,,,,,,FANS!!!!!!! computers, t.v's,,,,,,, radios draw squat.......Intermatic TIMERS,,,,,,,,End, that noise.......and SAVE YOU MONEY! I have a BLACK,,,,,,,,,Tube on my roof that WATER to MY Electric HOTWATER heater Recircules through ALL day LONG,,, ONLY good for the Months, of JUNE, JULY, August and SEPTember,,,,,A little savings,,,,,Solar panels,,,,,,,,,,,and BLACK water pipes,,,,,save........
YES you can do the SAME thing to a GAS hotwater heater with BLACK pipe........Sun heats it UP and LESS GAS used.........
[ edited by jackswebb on Jun 18, 2007 07:37 PM ]
Now I know this sounds sooooooooo minscule,,,,,,,,, But If 14 MILLION Landlords Homeowner Associations and HOMEOWNERS did this,,,,,,,,,,Billions saved........and LEFT MONEY in their,,,,,,,,pockets,,,,,,YOUR pockets.....
[ edited by jackswebb on Jun 18, 2007 07:44 PM ]
posted on June 24, 2007 12:44:18 PM new
My husband and I are guilty energy hogs......
When our block of the sub-division moved in to our brand new homes late 2002 we visted our new neighbor who IMMEDIATELY switched out all of his lightbulbs to the energy efficient corkscrew bulbs. GOOD FOR YOU! we encouraged hime but when we went back home we were like EWWW....... UGLY! Our homes have can style lighting in all main parts of the house. We just couldn't do it.
However about 6 months ago we found that they make can lights with the corkswer bulb on the inside so they look exactly the same and we bought a whole house full. The results on our bill were dramatic and immediate.
We also "got over ourselves" and switched out the 6 bulbs in our dining room chandelier due to the size needed we had to just get the corkscrew bulbs.........
Instead of using our oven to make frozen pizzas, bake cookies and any other small items we got a toaster oven and use it exclusively. I only use the oven for big production family dinners and cakes.
All other electronics we are still shamefully guilty energy hogs and we should put more effort into reducing for environmental reasons.
posted on June 24, 2007 01:52:15 PM new
Lovepotions: Yep! we saw immediate results on our power bill when we switched to mostly fluorescent light bulbs.
You mentioned using a toaster oven. I need one for exactly the reasons you've given here. What kind do you have, and does it work well, are you happy with it? Is the temperature you set it at fairly accurate? It's just the two of us, and we love those frozen tilapia fillets that are coated in good stuff, but I detest heating up the entire oven just to cook those two little items. I'm ready for a toaster oven, just don't really know where to start.
_____________________
There is more to life than increasing its speed. --Mahatma Gandhi
[ edited by roadsmith on Jun 24, 2007 01:59 PM ]
posted on June 24, 2007 04:08:34 PM new
I handwash some of my clothes and hang them dry in my backyard,you would be surprised how fast they dry!
Even some clothes washed in washer are dried outside ,sure saves on electric or gas bill.
I leave my frozen food like frozen french bread on the counter before I heat it up in the oven,I steam my fish instead of baking it,not sure if it is a save??
Of course during the day I keep my thermostat at 76 and keep my fans running.
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Lets all stop whining !
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posted on June 25, 2007 07:25:18 AM new
The microwaves stay in the food and then when you eat it they sneak out of your bite of Tilapia and zoom into your teeth where they cause giant black gaping ooze filled cavities which will eventually cause you to have to have all your teeth pulled out at great expense and pain and new false teeth made which won't fit right and will make you look 25 years older. Microwaves were invented by dentists. Really they were.
posted on June 25, 2007 05:41:24 PM new
O.k........ here goes,,,,,,I JUST Stole a Hampton Bay portable Air conditioner (7000 BTU's)from a seller at the swapmeet on sunday,,,,,,I asked , he said, $40.00!
YIKES!!!!!!! These are Well into the $300.00 range I am sure,,,,,,,Snatched!!! I Grabbed it and drug it off..
Today I plugged it in,,,,,it WORKS!!!!!!!!! perfect, ICE COLD air,,,,,,ahhhhhhhh,,,,,,,( I am in S.California, so YOU check the temp today, HOT!!!!!!!!!!).
Soooooooooo I make a whole (in the wall)venting, with the VENT hose, this extraced (heat)into the warehouse....Who cares,, in there it's 100 degrees in/out there anyway,,,, BUT,,,,,,,,,,,right by it is the CLOTHES Dryer,,,,,,GAS........
It has a setting for AIR ONLY.....NO Gas,,,,,,Ie: No HEAT,,,,,,,,Are you folks getting CLOSE to my IDEA?,,,,,,,Run that HEAT from the AC into that dryer and DRY your Laundry while sitting in cool AC..
IT can be done......that exhaust heat is HOT!!!!!!!!!!! I mean REALLY HOT...........
Killing two birds with ONE Stone......
This is ONE of the BEST No brainers I EVER dreamed up.......
and the Energy beat goes on ,,,,,,
and the Beat Goes on,,,,,,
posted on June 25, 2007 06:16:20 PM new
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Now I've REALLY gone over board,,,,,,......
Dryer rottisier TURKEY,Roast beef...???? Convection AIR?? 4th of JULY hot dogs???? hahahahaha,,,,,,,,hook another one (Dryer)up NEXT to the dryer and cook.....hahahahahaha,,,,,,,,,Conserve!!!!!! We are the world,,,,,We are the Children,,,,,Improvise Marine! I think I remember hearing that in a Clint Eastwood movie...
Happy 4th of July, Independance Day to all, and to all a Good Night....
