Green Campus Computing!

Green Computing

~the study and practice of efficient and eco-friendly computing resources.

URLS:

http://www.uoregon.edu/~recycle/GreenComputing/GreenCompGuide_text.htm
http://green.wikia.com/wiki/Green_Computing
http://www.foursquareinnovations.co.uk/software_development_and_ebusiness_articles/green_computing_tips.html
http://www.uoregon.edu/~recycle/GreenComputing/GreenCompGuide_text.htm
http://www.foursquareinnovations.co.uk/software_development_and_ebusiness_articles/green_computing_tips.html

“Think Green”

Change your computer habits to use less energy and save money.

The growing use of computers has caused a dramatic increase in energy consumption especially in our school. Here in our University every office, colleges, library and laboratory have computers and printers. More and more computers are purchased and put to use, but it’s not just the number of computers that is driving energy consumption upward. The way that we use computers also adds to the increasing energy burden.

As you observe here in our school, computers are continuously running even if it isn’t in use. In our computer laboratory, not all the time all computer units are used but you can see it is on even no one uses it.

Every time we leave computers or lights on we waste electricity. Burning fossil fuels generates most of our electricity and it also emits pollutants, sulfur, and carbon dioxide into the air. These emissions can cause respiratory disease, smog, acid rain and global climate change.

Common Computer Myths:

Myth: It is bad to turn off the computer.
Truth: Computers are now designed to handle 40,000 on/off cycles. This is considerably more cycles than the average user will initiate in the computer’s 5-7 year life span. Turning your computer off helps reduce heat stress and wear on the system.

Myth: Turning your computer off uses more energy than leaving it on.
Truth: The surge of power used by a CPU to boot up is far less than the energy used by the unit when left on for over 3 minutes.

Myth: Screen savers save energy.
Truth: Screen savers were originally designed to help protect the life span of monochrome monitors which are now technologically obsolete. Most screen savers do not save energy unless they actually turn off the screen or, in the case of laptops, turn off the back light.

Myth: Network connections are lost when a PC goes into low-power/sleep mode.
Truth: Newer computers are designed to sleep on networks to prevent loss of data or connection. CPU’s with Wake on LAN (WOL) technology built-in to network cards can be left in sleep mode overnight to wake-up and receive data packets sent to the unit.

Tips and Tricks to Green Computing

• Power off your monitor when not in use instead of using screensavers
• Enable the standby/sleep mode and power management settings
• Power computers down on weekends and evenings
• Turn off all devices until you are ready to use them (scanners, speakers, printers)
• Don’t power your computer on until you are ready to use it
• Select dark backgrounds for your screen display. Do not use bright displays, which consume more power
• Review documents and emails onscreen instead of printing them out
• Use double sided printing functions

Create a “Green” Machine:

Enable Power Management Features:

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP

• Select Start> Settings> Control Panel> and Display.
• Select the Screen Saver tab. Choose a predominantly black screen saver and set it to wait for 5 minutes
• Click on Settings or Power to reach the power management settings
• Click the Shut Off Monitor box and set for 10 minutes
• Click Ok or Apply.
• Set Turn off hard disks for 15 minutes (or less)

· Set System standby for 30 minutes (or less)

· Click Ok or Apply.

The computers we all use day in and day out are huge energy wasters, unless we know how to manage them responsibly. It is simple way that we can help and suggest to apply to our University is by using sleep mode, avoiding screensavers, and remembering to always shut down your computer when you aren’t using it for an extended period of time, are all small actions that have big benefits.

Our school computer users should activate sleep mode on a regular basis. Sleep mode does no damage to the computer; it simply turns off your monitor after a period of inactivity. Pressing a key or clicking the mouse reactivates the monitor. Additionally, screensavers do not save energy, contrary to popular myth. In fact, screensavers can actually use twice as much energy as the computer would use without a screensaver. These screen saver programs also involve system interaction with your CPU that results in additional energy consumption. A blank screen saver is slightly better but even that only reduces monitor energy consumption by a few percent, but still it benefits us. And don’t forget to turn your computer off when you aren’t returning to it soon!

We have common misconception that a computer’s life is shortened by turning it on and off has led some to leave computers on all the time. Others are hesitant to switch their computers on and off a couple times during their workday despite only using this equipment or unit.

Computers generate heat and require additional cooling which adds to energy costs, that’s why most of our computer laboratory has air-condition which contribute for energy consumption. I encourage all computer users to enable their Power Management Features. And lets thanks to the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA), personal computer systems purchased today can be easy on energy. These “Energy Star” computers and monitors can be programmed to automatically “power-down” to a low power state when they are not being used. These efficiency gains can be achieved without any sacrifice in computing performance.

The EPA has estimated that providing computers with “sleep mode” reduces their energy use by 60 to 70 percent – and ultimately could save enough electricity each year to power Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, cut electric bills by $2 billion, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of 5 million cars.

How Much Energy Does Your Computer System Use?

A typical desktop PC system is comprised of the computer itself (the CPU or the “box”), a monitor, and printer. Your CPU may require approximately 100 watts of electrical power. Add 50-150 watts for a 15-17 inch monitor, proportionately more for larger monitors. The power requirements of conventional laser printers can be as much as 100 watts or more when printing though much less if idling in a “sleep mode.” Ink jet printers use as little as 12 watts while printing and 5 watts while idling.

We also suggest to do some Campus E-Waste Recycling in our school, in which the University of Oregon done to their campus.

Campus E-Waste Recycling:
Do you have old and unused electronics stored away? Our University should now recycles:
· CPUs, Monitors, and Printers · Floppy Disks and Compact Discs · Toner Cartridges and Ink Jets · Cell Phones, Palm Pilots (PDA’s) · 2-Way Radios/Beepers/Pagers · Audio and Video Tapes

Think about this:

A desktop computer left on for a full year would release 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It would take up to 500 trees to offset that amount of carbon. Just by changing your computing habits, you can save significantly on pollution and energy costs. (According to the Harvard Green Campus Initiative)

A computer left continuously running will emit 2161 pounds of CO2 in a year and cost $45 a year to power at $0.0372 per kWh. A major cause of global warming.

Turning a computer off at night so it runs only 8 hours a day computes to a reduction of 810 kWh per year, or a 67% yearly savings.

Some specific suggestions that we can implement to our school:

• Unless you require immediate access to e-mail or other Internet services, break the habit of turning on all your computer equipment as soon as you enter the office each day.
• If practical, informally group your computer activities and try to do then during one or two parts of the day, leaving the computer off at other times.
• Avoid using the switch on a power strip to turn on all your equipment.
• If you use a laser printer, don’t turn your printer on until you are ready to print.
• Turn off your entire computer system (CPU, monitor and printer) or at least your monitor and printer when you go to lunch or will be out of office for a meeting or an errand.
• For “computer servers” which must be on to serve network functions, explore ways to turn servers off at night.
• If monitors are not needed for “servers” to operate, keep server monitors off. If server monitor is needed during the day, at least turn it off at night and weekends.

The energy saving suggestions listed above are appropriate for many campus PC users, some of the suggestions may be inappropriate for certain computer applications or work situations. To come up with the good planning to Green Computing to our University, staffs and all computer users should discuss possible energy conservation measures to determine which steps can be taken without harming productivity.

Our energy conservation program will not work without everybody’s help. Let’s all be an energy educator and gently remind our classmates and instructors to save energy by changing their computer habits.

Other Green Computing Practices that can be adopt to our School:

You can take a giant step toward environmentally responsible or “green” computing by conserving energy with your computer. But green computing involves other important steps as well. These pertain to paper use, toner cartridges, disposal of old computer equipment and purchasing decisions when considering new computer equipment.

Reducing Paper Waste
Rather than creating a paperless office, computer use has vastly increased paper consumption and paper waste. Here are some suggestions for reducing waste:

• Print as little as possible.

Review and modify documents on the screen and use print preview. Minimize the number of hard copies and paper drafts you make. Instead of printing, save information to disks.

• Recycle waste paper.

You may use the back page of the paper as a draft.

• Buy and use recycled paper in your printers and copiers.

From an environmental point of view, the best recycled paper is 100 percent post consumer recycled content.

• Save e-mail whenever possible and avoid needless printing of e-mail messages.
• Use e-mail instead of faxes or send faxes directly from your computer to eliminate the need for a hard copy.

When you must fax using hard copies, save paper using a “sticky” fax address note and not a cover sheet.

• On larger documents, use smaller font sizes (consistent with readability) to save paper.
• If your printer prints a test page whenever it is turned on, disable this unnecessary feature.
• Before recycling paper, which has print on only one side, set it aside for use as scrap paper or in printing drafts.
• When documents are printed or copied, use double-sided printing and copying. If possible, use the multiple pages per sheet option on printer properties.
• When general information-type documents must be shared within an office, try circulating them instead of making an individual copy for each person. This can also be done easily by e-mail.

Above this tips and practices can be adopt to in our school. We are not focus on how we save energy but also in paper waste. All colleges use printers for printing purposes. And we all know some of the staffs irresponsibly use paper when doing printing which causes in paper wastages. I think we should implement this, it really benefits us.

We as a student, with this information stated above and our own little way to save the environment is in our hands. Lets work together to save mother earth!