While the need for energy efficiency might be top of mind for all South Africans, it is an issue which is not confined to our borders. Internationally, individuals, households and companies are rethinking their approach to energy usage as the threat of power shortages and the global cost of excessive energy consumption is counted.
At an ICT symposium I had the privilege to attend it was evident that as a result of this global energy crisis we are faced with, the major manufacturers of IT equipment are turning their attention to the production of technology which is more environmentally friendly. This concept of “Green Technology” has led to the release of various environmental-friendly computer components which are designed to decrease energy costs through reduced power consumption, achieved without sacrificing any operational performance or functionality.
An example of such a green component is the “Green Ethernet” switch released by D-Link, one of the major networking equipment manufacturers. The switch is designed in such a way that it can detect inactivity on the network and automatically switch off ports that are not in use. It also detects network cable length and adjusts power usage to save energy. This way, a port connected to a 20 meter cable only uses as much power as it needs, instead of using full power, which is only needed for 100 meter cables - reducing power and saving energy. The company claims that by using the “Green Ethernet” technology you can save up to 85.6 % power.
The trend is also to move towards flat screen (LCD Monitors) which use much less energy than CRT monitors. Taking the above energy saving initiatives in mind, is it not time that we in Khanya also look at more effective ways of minimizing the energy usage in our computer laboratories? What methods can we put in place to contribute to the global trend of using more energy efficient systems?
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Going Green
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4 comments:
Definitely there are ways of "going green" in our computer laboratories.Mind you the hibernation option available in Windows and Linux environments enables one's computer to go into "sleep mode" when not in use.Invoking such a utility will save power instead of leaving PCs on forever.
In addition,perhaps the purchasing department should(assuming it is not already doing it) ONLY buy biodegradable products to reduce e-waste.We need a fully-fledged campaign to conscientize our schools of the merits of using eco-friendly products,not only within the computer lab, but even at home as well.
Definitely there are ways of "going green" in our computer laboratories.Mind you the hibernation option available in Windows and Linux environments enables one's computer to go into "sleep mode" when not in use.Invoking such a utility will save power instead of leaving PCs on forever.
In addition,perhaps the purchasing department should(assuming it is not already doing it) ONLY buy biodegradable products to reduce e-waste.We need a fully-fledged campaign to conscientize our schools of the merits of using eco-friendly products,not only within the computer lab, but even at home as well.
Each school needs to do an electricity audit to see were they are wasting electricity and then to act on their findings.
For one thing all computers (boxes and monitors) except possibly the server can be switched off at the end of the day. Some schools leave their aircons on overnight to cool down a room where computers remain on. This practice should be stopped.
These five simple ways of saving electricity are suggested by techlogg.com (http://techlogg.com/content/view/367/31/)
1)Turn off your PC after work.
2)Drop the screen brightness.
3)Switch of your ADSL modem at night (if you have one)
4)Switch everything off at the wall
5)Set your desktop PC power management.
Another group did some calculations that may be of interest :
http://www.tufts.edu/tie/tci/Computers.html
The calculations are in $ but I'm sure we can do the maths?
LCD screens is an option.
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