ICT Energy Saving Tips

Power Managment

The average power consumption of a PC is 160 Watt. You can already save one half by using the option power management. It also guarantees less noise and less heat production.
Power management does not affect the life time of the device or the batteries.
But do not use it as the easy solution: shut down your PC if you do not use it for quite some time.

Compare power consumption of these different modes:

Low power consumption is not the only advantage of power management:

• If your PC turns automatically to hibernation, it first writes all the data to the hard disk.
• A PC in stand-by starts quicker than a hibernated one.
• You can save on cooling, because a room full of PC's generates a lot of heat.
• Secure your energy saving mode with a password, hence no one can have a look at your personal documents while you are away.
• Automatic switching off of displays reduces electromagnetic radiation.

What to buy?

Desktop, laptop or palmtop?

Laptops have more power saving modes than desktops, so they are more economic. Palmtops consume even less energy, but cannot - in practice - replace laptops.

How can you make laptops even more energy saving?
Charging batteries always means losing some energy. So your laptop functions more economically when connected to the electricity grid. Avoid hidden power consumption: the power adapter of your laptop also consumes power when not connected to the laptop.

Look at the extension and/or upgrade possibilities when you buy a PC. So you do not have to buy a complete new system later on. It will be cheaper and you reduce consumption of raw materials.

Which display?

• A bigger display uses more energy.
• A higher resolution means more energy consumption.
• Flat screens (LCD-monitors) consume 50% less than CRT-monitors
• LCD-monitors generate less electromagnetic radiation.

Fax & printer

Printers and fax machines are in stand-by most of the time, which demands a lot of energy. The average use of a fax is 3 minutes per day, that is 16 hours per year. A common laser printer in stand-by instance consumes 75% of its total consumption. That is why you should buy an economic apparatus with energy label.

These type of devices have energy saving modes, such as PC's. Stand-by mode switches off some functions, but the energy consumption can still be important. Laser printers keep the fuser warm, in order to react immediately on a print command. Sleeping mode (hibernation) is more energy-saving. Laser printers can accept print commands, but first have to warm up. Inkjet printers do not have hibernation mode. The energy consumption is low because only a few functions remain active. Finally you can switch the printer off. But look out, some energy consumption is possible when the device is still connected to the grid.

Inkjet or laserprinter?

Laser printers consume much more than inkjet printers: 90-130 Watt, sometimes momentary 700 Watt, versus 11 Watt. Because laser printers print quicker, the difference in energy consumption per print is less. Hence choose an inkjet printer if you do not print large quantities in a short time.

Inkjet, laser or thermal fax?

A laser fax machine consumes 40% more energy than an inkjet fax. Inkjet fax machines and the old type of thermal fax machines are more or less the same.

Combinations

Attention: sometimes energy functions are to be set separately for office appliances.

Energy labels

By energy-friendly devices with recognized energy labels. It not only concerns computers, printers and faxes, but also scanners and copiers. Energy Star is the most well known, but we present some others too.

	Energy Star Energy Star is a label of the American EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and since 2002 it is also recognized by the EU. Energy Star has standards for limited energy consumption in hibernation or stand-by mode. The device must support power management, which has to be installed on delivery. Displays with Energy Star label have to consume less than 50% of the energy of a conventional display. That is why they last longer. For more information, look at: www.energystar.gov
	GEEA The voluntary energy quality label GEEA (Group for Energy Efficient Appliances) for electrical apparatus such as TV's, video recorders, audio equipment and computer devices has been conceived in European context. One of the issues this label regulates is the stand-by energy consumption. Devices with the GEEA-label are amongst the 30% most economical on the market. An overview of the manufacturers which received this label can be found on the website: www.efficient-appliances.org
	TCO label The TCO-label is a Swedish reference label which sets standards for energy consumption and radiation of a monitor. These standards are more severe than the common legal regulation (MRP-II standard). For further information, look at www.tcodevelopment.com
	Ecolabel The criteria of the Ecolabel were set in February 1999. These criteria are situated in energy saving and life cycle prolongation. More on this at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel

How to get rid of an old PC?

PC's at your workplace are company waste, other rules apply:

More details about the collective system of Recupel: www.recupel.be

A more economical usage

Today almost every household has a PC. A lot of these computers are in stand-by mode at night. There is a considerable amount of energy consumption in this stand-by mode: when a PC is shut down during the night it saves about 25 euro and 70 kg CO₂ emission per year.

Environment

The environmental damage a PC causes is mainly situated in its electricity consumption. Also in the manufacturing and concerning waste production there is a environmental cost. Because newer versions follow each other in quick succession, a PC is relatively quick out of date. That is why a PC becomes waste before it is worn out. This means an extra environmental threat.
Hence energy saving during normal use is most efficient, especially for a common PC. For laptops the picture is different. A laptop consumes considerably less energy. Therefore the level of energy consumption during its lifetime is equivalent to the level of energy used for its production.

Besides reducing energy consumption, also a longer life cycle contributes to cleaner environment. Another issue is the environmental damage by the use of bromide (fire reducer) during production. PC's also contain heavy metals such as copper, lead and tin. The excavation of these metals damages the landscape and the processing from raw material generates pollution.
A computer system consists of a mother board housing, a monitor and peripherals such as printer, speakers, fax and scanner. A PC with monitor consumes between 75 and 300 Watts, depending on the speed of the processor and the type of graphics card. Higher resolution means higher energy consumption, and it is the same for the size.
A computer in stand-by mode consumes between 6 and 145 Watts. Because a computer spends more time in stand-by mode than in effective use, it means that power consumption in stand-by can increase a lot if you do not take appropriate measures.

Energy costs

The following figures suppose an effective usage of 11 hours per week (570 hrs per year) and 42 hours of stand-by per week (2184 hrs per year). In many households the computer is on day and night. If you do not change the standard setting of the BIOS, most systems switch to so-called S1-mode, if the user selects stand-by in Windows.
This S1-mode switches off the hard disks and optical drives, but many parts, such as the fan, remain on. Therefore energy consumption is still high, about 78 - 145 Watt.
Stand-by S3 mode is much more economic. It switches off almost all PC components, including the fan. Only the RAM-memory gets power supply in order to keep all data. You can switch to S3-mode in the BIOS, by selecting Power Options, and setting ACPI Suspend Type on S3/STR. It should be possible with any computer of maximum 3 years old. The power consumption of S3-mode is much lower than S1-mode, slightly higher than complete shutdown: between 6-10 Watts against 4-8 Watts.
Only if you unplug the power cable consumption will drop to 0 Watts.

usage	power	electricity (kWh)	costs (in euro*)
570 hrs (effective use)	200	114	25
2184 hrs (hibernate)	80	175	38
6006 hrs (sleep mode)	8	48	11
totaal		337	74

*: 0,22 euro / kWh (price level 2007)

Considerations

How green is ICT?
Electronic communication and digital archiving have a positive impact on the amount of paper that is needed. On the other hand these devices generate a lot of environmental damage.
WWF International launched a leaflet called 'Saving the climate at the speed of light'. This leaflet shows the benefits of video conferencing, audio conferencing, work at a distance, to reduce CO2-emission. Download it here. It does not mention possible CO2-emission linked to the production and waste treatment of these examples.

Greenpeace International in April 2006 published an update of 'Guide to greener electronics', look at: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/green-electronics-guide-ewaste250806. This guide evaluates the different manufacturers of PC's and gsm's concerning the use of raw materials which damage our environment, their efforts against waste and the recycling of their products. Again Apple came out as most unfriendly manufacturer to the environment. That is why Greenpeace, together with Apple users launched a publicity campaign called 'Green my Apple' to confront the manufacturer with this bad situation. They ask Apple to avoid toxic materials and to reduce waste. The campaign based on the well known Apple style was a success. Chairman Steve Jobs himself wrote an open letter to the public announcing that the company would change future production drastically. The campaign is to be found at http://www.greenmyapple.org.