For every dollar spent on hardware,
50 cents is spent on power and cooling. Green IT is not just ecologicly
sound it’s good business.
The average data center is 52% utilized and 1/3 of data centers
are approaching maximum floor space capacity..
The average rack is 56% utilized and the 1/3 of data centers are
approaching maximum rack space density. Power and cooling shortages
cause server or storage downtime in 49% of data centers. According
to American Power Conversion (APC), server and storage consume
50% of power and air conditioning consumes 34% of power. According
to McKinsey, deploying virtualization saves 25-30% of power. According
to the Department of Energy (DOE) data center electricity has doubled
since 2000, costing about $4.1 billion.
Compelling reasons for consolidation virtualization:
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1 |
In a 2006 report, the International Association
of Electronics Recyclers projects that with the current growth
and obsolescence rates of the various categories of consumer
electronics, approximately 3 billion units will be scrapped
during the rest of this decade, or an average of 400 million
units a year. |
2 |
Gartner has estimated that 133,000 personal computers are
discarded by U.S. homes and businesses each day. |
3 |
Each year 130 million cell phones are retired. |
4 |
According to the EPA, we generated 2.6 million tons of
e-waste in the U.S. in 2005, or 1.4 percent of total discards.
Of this amount only 12.6% was recycled. |
5 |
About 68 percent of consumers stockpile used
or unwanted computer equipment in their homes. |
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Power and Cooling-Related Facts
Power and cooling shortages cause server or storage downtime in
49% of data centers. According to American Power Conversion (APC),
server and storage consume 50% of power and air conditioning consumes
34% of power. According to McKinsey, deploying virtualization saves
25-30% of power. According to the Department of Energy (DOE) data
center electricity has doubled since 2000, costing about $4.1 billion.
The #1 IT business goal is to reduce costs.
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The Foundation of GREEN IT right now.
These fifteen simple power saving tips can reduce your energy
requirements by over 50%
First The Facts
In a typical desktop computer, nearly half the power coming
out of the wall is wasted and never reaches the processor, memory,
disks, or other components. The added heat from inefficient computers
can increase the demand on air conditioners and cooling systems,
making your computing equipment even more expensive to run. Even
though most of today’s desktop computers are capable of
automatically
transition to a Stand by (also known as sleep) or hibernate state
when inactive, about 90 percent of systems have this function
disabled.
Some 25 percent of the electricity used to power home electronics—
computers, DVD players, stereos, and TVs is consumed while the
products are turned off.
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1 |
Turn off your computer at night so it
runs only eight hours a day—you'll reduce your
energy use by 810kWh per year and net a 67 percent
annual savings. |
2 |
Plug your computer into a surge protector with a
master control outlet, which automatically senses when
the computer is not in use and cuts power to it and
all your peripherals |
3 |
Purchase flat-screen monitors—they use significantly
less energy and are not as hard on your eyes as CRTs. |
4 |
Purchase an Energy star–compliant computer
or laptop model which uses much less energy than desktop
units. |
5 |
Enable the Stand by (sleep) mode and power management
settings on your computer. |
6 |
Forgo the screen saver—it doesn’t save
energy or your screen unless you're using an old monochrome
monitor. |
7 |
Review document drafts and e-mails onscreen instead
of printing them out. |
8 |
Power off your monitor when you are not using it
instead of using screen savers. |
9 |
Consider using an ink-jet printer—although
a bit slower than laser printers, inkjets use 80 to
90 percent less energy. |
10 |
Buy vegetable or non-petroleum-based inks—they
are made from renewable resources, require fewer hazardous
solvents, and often produce brighter, cleaner colors. |
11 |
Turn off all printers and peripherals unless you
are using them. |
12 |
Do not leave the computer running overnight or on
weekends. |
13 |
Choose dark backgrounds for your screen display—bright-colored
displays consumer more power. |
14 |
Reduce the light level in your room when you are
working on your computer. |
15 |
Network and share printers where possible. |
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Employing Desktop Computer Power Management
Stand by or Sleep Mode - Use this mode if you’re
away from your computer for frequent short periods of time. Stand
by (sleep) mode conserves energy by cutting off power to your
display, hard drive, and peripherals. After a pre-set period
of inactivity, your computer switches to a low power state. When
you move your mouse or press any computer key, you exit Stand
by (sleep) mode
and your computer takes you back to its previous operating state.
Stand by (sleep) mode is an especially effective way to conserve
battery power in a laptop computer. However, if your computer
loses power for any reason while in Stand by (sleep) mode, you
may lose unsaved work. This is known as Sleep on Mac OS-X and
Windows Vista and Suspend on Linux.
Hibernate Mode - Use this mode if you’re
away from your computer for an extended period of time. Hibernate
mode saves energy and protects your work by copying system data
to a reserved area on your hard drive and then completely turning
off your computer. It also reduces wear and tear on your components.
When you turn power back on, your files and your documents appear
on your desktop just as you left them. Be sure to set your system
to automatically go into periods of time. This is known as Safe
Sleep on Mac OS-X and on Linux this is also known as suspend-to-disk.
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The Foundation of GREEN IT right now.
11 Desktop Computer Power-RelatedMyths
Common myths
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1 |
You should never turn off your computer.-
Your computer is designed to handle 40,000 on/off cycles.
If you are an average user, that’s significantly
more cycles than you will initiate in the computer’s
five-to-seven-year-life. When you turn your computer
off, you not only reduce energy use, you also lower
heat stress and wear on the system. |
2 |
Turning your computer off and then back on uses more
energy than leaving it on - The surge of power used
by a computer to boot up is far less than the energy
your computer uses when left on for more than three
minutes. |
3 |
Screen savers save energy.- This is a common misconception.
Screen savers were originally designed to help prolong
the life of monochrome monitors. Those monitors are
now technologically obsolete. Screen savers save energy
only if they actually turn off the screen or, with
laptops, turn off the backlight.. |
4 |
Network connections are lost when computers go into
low-power or Stand by (sleep) mode.- Newer computers
are designed to Stand by (sleep) on networks without
loss of data or connection. CPUs with Wake on LAN (WOL)
technology can be left in Stand by (sleep) mode overnight
to wake up and receive data packets sent to the unit. |
5 |
LCD monitors use less energy than CRT’s so
therefore I should leave it on at all times. The average
17” LCD monitor uses 35 watts of electricity
an hour. In a business environment where hundreds to
thousands of LCD’s are in use simultaneously,
this can add up in costs very quickly. Again, use power
saving techniques, and look for |
6 |
A monitor that is an Energy Star qualified product.
Energy star products will put the monitor into sleep
mode if configured correctly. Remember, LCD monitors
are considered to be “vampire energy users”,
meaning the display will still be drawing power, even
in sleep mode. If the size of the monitor isn’t
necessarily a factor, consider purchasing a 14” LCD,
you will be generating 40% less energy as opposed to
a 17” LCD. |
7 |
An average desktop computer requires 85 watts just
to idle, even with the monitor off. If that computer
were in use or idling for over 40 hours a week instead
of a full 168, over $40 in energy costs would be saved
annually. |
8 |
One computer left on 24 hours a day costs you between
$115 and $160 in electricity costs annually while dumping
1,500 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere. |
9 |
A tree absorbs between 3 and 15 pounds of CO2 each
year. That means up to 500 trees are needed to offset
the annual emissions of one computer left on all the
time! |
10 |
If each household in a region the size of the metro
Boston area turned off its computer for just one additional
hour per day, it would save $3.2 million in electricity
costs and prevent 19,000 tons of CO2 from heating the
atmosphere. |
11 |
Electricity production is the largest source of greenhouse
gas emissions in the United States, ahead of transportation |
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The Foundation of GREEN IT right now.
Print green and help save the world
Ecological Printing
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1 |
Use recycled paper: By purchasing recycled
paper, you are reducing waste and reducing energy consumption
and the quality of recycled paper is high. |
2 |
Use duplex printing: Duplex printing is the practice
of automatically printing to both sides of the paper,
reducing paper usage by 50%. Hewlett-Packard conducted
an internal case study, which reported that switching
the duplex printing can and will reduce the total paper
volume by 800 tons. |
3 |
Use black and white printing: Use the black and white
printer option when ever possible as opposed to color
printing if color is not required. |
4 |
Consolidate your print infrastructure: By doing this
you can reduce the total space occupied by equipment
and transition from personal printing to more centralized
workgroup-level printing which in turn significantly
reduces costs and need for maintenance. |
5 |
Use digitally stored documents: Try
storing your documents digitally or using e-mail instead
of snail mail. In some respects you may find yourself
more organized storing documents electronically rather
than printing them and storing them in files. |
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The Foundation of GREEN IT right now.
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Marty
‘Gets’ Green
Marty Poniatowski is Vice President of System Architecture
at Computer Design and Integration, LLC (www.cdillc.com.)
The company is a professional services and infrastructure
firm and Marty’s group are experts in all major technologies
including servers, storage, networking, and software.
Marty has been widely published in computer industry trade
publications. He has published over 50 articles on various
computer-related topics. He is the author of 16 Prentice
Hall books on computer-related topics that have been translated
into numerous languages including Japanese and Simplified
Chinese. Marty holds an M.S. in Information Systems from
Polytechnic University (Brooklyn, NY), an M.S. in Management
from the University of Bridgeport (Bridgeport, CT), and a
B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Roger Williams University
(Bristol, RI).
Before joining CDI Marty has been a Solution Architect with
Hewlett-Packard Company for 20 years in the New York area.
He has worked with hundreds of Hewlett Packard customers
in many industries, including Internet startups, financial
services, and manufacturing. Get
The Foundation of GREEN IT right now.
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The
Foundation of
GREEN IT
This the first practical, technical, ROI-driven
guide to successfully deploying “Green IT” data
center technologies. This book isn’t about “evangelizing” green
IT: it’s about getting down in the trenches and making
it work. Marty Poniatowski and a team of leading Green IT
consultants from CDI present detailed technical information
for data center professionals who want to systematically
identify the right improvements, implement them, maximize
savings, and accurately calculate business value.
Get
The Foundation of GREEN IT right now.
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