Jul
6
(2007)
Shut Down…
Filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: energy, environment.
I’m going to do something today that I have never done before. Ever since I’ve had a “work” computer, starting in 1994, I’ve never turned it/them off. I’ve always left them on as personal testing/staging servers, “just in case” I needed to grab something. It’s often been handy (and occasionally essential), being able to SSH into my work system, or run test web apps on it.
I’ve never given much thought to just how much juice must be sucked up by the systems, even when left running essentially idle evenings and weekends. Apparently, this habit costs US businesses $1.7 BILLION per year.
I really don’t care about the financial cost. My portion is likely just a few pennies per day. The University can afford that.
I do care about the incremental effect this is having on the environment, though. In Calgary, much of our juice is generated by burning natural gas. So my leaving a computer on 24/7 is actually pumping CO2 into the air, and helping suck up more of the petro goo that drives this city.
So, when I leave the office this afternoon, I’m shutting down my quad G5 for the weekend. I’ll have to modify some of my automated backup scripts, which assume they can run at 3am, but that shouldn’t cause too many problems.
I’ve avoided doing the math to see how many watts drive the quad G5 + 20″ Cinema + 17″ Dell LCD + 500GB external drive + power to USB devices…
Baby steps…
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7 Responses to “Shut Down…”
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You might be interested in a book that Sian got me for my last birthday, the Carbon Buster’s Home Energy Handbook (http://www.amazon.ca/Carbon-Busters-Home-Energy-Handbook/dp/0865715696/). A lot of it is common sense and stuff you likely already know, but the good thing about this book is that it examines all of the steps you can take to cut your emissions footprint from the perspective of the *actual* impact (measured in pounds of CO2 output and barrels of oil saved), cost to implement and time to recover any initial investment. It’s an attempt to help people figure out how to have the biggest impact up front. So, for instance, it can help you decide if joining Enmax’s “Greenmax” program (https://www.enmax.com/Energy/Res/Go+Green/Greenmax.htm) is worthwhile and the impact that will have versus taking the $12/month you would have invested there and, for instance, using that to improve the R-values in your home. But in any case, the most important thing is to start taking steps, so congratulations.
Good on ya amigo, hope this is one of those times you are out ahead on a trend!
I think the worst offenders are devices that continue to draw power when they’re “off”. I turn off the power bars to my major electronics (TV, PVR, cable modem, etc.) every night since they suck up ridiculous amounts of energy to do nothing. As if simply drawing power wasn’t bad enough, my computer speakers glow purple when they’re “off”, forcing me to unplug them too. I can’t fathom how that’s a feature.
I should just hit the main breaker in my basement at night. that’d probably wreak havoc on the leftovers in the fridge, though. and my alarm clock likely wouldn’t do much in the morning….
I always just assumed that “idle” appliances (VCR - yes, I still have one, DVD, TV, etc…) wouldn’t suck much juice when “off” but apparently they use a whole lot more than is need to just power the blinky “I’m still here” reminder lights (because, I’m likely to forget that I even HAVE a DVD player, if it doesn’t blink a light at me to remind me to turn it on…)
@King: I wonder how much juice gets used by that Canon battery charger LED?
My work computer walks out the door with me every night, but I should get into the habbit of somehow easily turning everything else off.
Except my headphones, they need to be charged and ready for me to start the next day…
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you’re blowing a few hundred dollars a year by leaving a computer on.
imagine my situation: rack of music doodads, guitar amp, two macs, a PC (two of those have large power supplies), amped speakers, two monitors, burner, external hard drives, wireless router and miscellany. if i have that on over a saturday, i actually notice it on my bill.
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