How your devices harm the environment
Your computer and peripherals draw significant amounts of energy in sleep and standby modes. They contribute to harmful CO2 emissions.
These days everyone seems to be talking about global warming and ways to protect the environment. Unconsciously, all of us are contributing to unwanted CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions from home, through the careless use of our electrical devices. The sheer amount of energy wasted by devices like PCs, televisions, and most other electronic appliances, even when they are in standby mode, is enormous.
According to reports from the German Federal Environment Office, devices consume around 17 billion kilowatts hours (kWh) in a year when they are in the standby mode. This mode is also responsible for CO2 emissions; the CO2 dissipated from ‘sleeping’ devices amounts to about one-seventh the CO2 emitted by an automobile. Twelve million tonnes of carbon dioxide is the price you pay for just keeping the device on standby! The electronic appliance industry is careless with the design of devices. Manufacturers do not provide a proper shut-off button in devices. DVD players, DVD recorders or even multifunctional printers continue to draw electricity because of the absence of an ‘Off’ button. If you press ‘Power off’ on the remote, these devices go into standby mode. The situation is even more serious in the case of PCs. Windows Vista never shuts down or powers off the PC completely. Rather, the default shut down mode is a deep sleep mode that requires power. It’s only when you switch off the mains switch at the back of the computer that the power supply unit stops drawing power. Moreover, operating system shut down options such as ‘Sleep mode’ (Windows Vista) or ‘Standby’ (Windows XP) mislead us into believing that the computer hardly consumes electricity in these modes. However, it has been proved that such devices can consume as much as 120 Watts in these supposedly power saving modes!
In this story we shall examine how individual devices consume power in the standby mode. But first let’s have a look at some energy saving initiatives.
Inadequate standards
Here’s some advice for those planning to buy environment-friendly devices. Many manufacturers label their devices with such tags to enable buyers to identify power-saving devices immediately. But don’t buy blindly, for the guidelines vary to a great extent. Energy Star (www. energystar.gov), initiated by the US Federal Environment Office, has been a standard for PCs since 1992. But the limit values set down by Energy Star seem more suited to the energy supplier rather than the consumer. Labels on some monochrome laser printers indicate if the power consumption for that device is under 20 Watts in standby mode. But devices that require less than 5 Watts are already available in the market. The long overdue standard with lower limit values is expected soon.
The European initiative GEEA (Group for Energy Efficient Appliances, (www. efficient-appliances.org/) has stricter
guidelines. It suggests that a monochrome laser printer must consume less than 10 Watts in the standby mode before it gets the certification, but we think this is still too lenient. Devices that have an on/off switch can use the ‘No Energy’ logo. This initiative demands ‘true’ on-off switches that are easy to access, readily visible and
clearly labelled.
PC systems
Fast PCs and speedy cars have one thing in common: high speed means high energy consumption. While a car consumes no fuel when the ignition is turned off, a PC still uses electricity even after it is shut down. You have to switch off the mains to cut off the supply totally.The amount of electricity required by a PC in the so-called ‘soft-off’ mode depends on its power supply unit. A really good SMPS can make do with less than 1 Watt. A poor quality one, on the other hand, can use electricity to the tune of 20 Watts in standby mode. It makes practical sense to use a multi-way connector or power strip with a master switch, which also switches off the monitor, printer and
other peripheral devices.
We recommend programmable master-slave type plug sockets: All other devices (slave) are switched on or off
with the main device (master)—when the master uses minimum electricity. If a PC goes into the standby mode with a power consumption of 5 Watts in the lunch hour, then the slave devices such as the printer or monitor are automatically switched off. Energy can be conserved even when the device is in operation or in standby
mode. The power saving schemes in Windows allow you to configure settings such as switching off the monitor or the hard disk, and activating the standby mode of the PC—after a predefined period of inactivity. The power-saving options in Windows XP can be found in the Control Panel. Windows Vista has them in the Control Panel under the ‘Hardware and Sound’ menu. You can also examine the BIOS settings: In most PCs, the BIOS is not optimized for energy conservation. To access the BIOS you need to press the [F1] or [Del
correct key to be pressed is displayed on the screen. The standby mode is optimized when you activate the S3-mode (Suspend-to- RAM) in BIOS. All system information pertaining to configuration, open files and applications is stored in main memory (which remains powered), while other components are switched off to save energy. This way the computer gets activated within four to eight seconds and requires only 3 Watts in the sleep mode.
On the other hand, when the BIOS is set to the energy-gulping S4 mode (in ViiVPCs, for instance), the computer requires at least 65 Watts (latest processor models) even under the best conditions, and 120 Watts (in an older Pentium D version, for instance) in the most unfavorable conditions. The economical S3 mode is a good choice if you want to access a Windows computer through the network. Activate the ‘The computer can activate this device from the standby mode’ option under ‘Energy options’ in the device manager of the network card. Now activate the
standby mode in the Windows energy options. You will now be able to access the PC through another device, such as an Xbox 360, in a few seconds.
Notebooks
Usually, notebooks are more modest than desktop PCs when it comes to the energy requirements. On average, notebook batteries last for less than two hours, so energy saving is an important issue for those who are away from a plug point for long durations. If you want to achieve maximum battery runtime then it’s essential for
a notebook to have energy-efficient components. Here’s a comparison: while desktop processors such as AMD’s Athlon 64 X2 5000+ or Intel’s Core 2 Duo E6400 require up to 65 Watts, mobile CPUs make do with a maximum of 35 Watts. The PSU is of importance in matters of energy efficiency. Some PSUs unnecessarily convert 7 Watts into heat. The warmer the external power supply unit, the higher the electricity consumption. Apple’s MacBooks or Acer-models have intelligent charging electronics that ensure the current-flow sinks below 0.1 Watts after the battery is charged. Values less than 3.0 Watts , in Samsung’s Q10, for instance, are acceptable. This is known as
‘conservation charging.’
Printers and multifunctional devices
Usually, monochromatic laser printers require less electricity than color lasers. And this is true even in the standby mode. Color lasers use more energy when they go into the standby mode instead of the sleep mode. All color lasers require more than 10 Watts when they are in standby. To conserve energy, check the settings in the printer driver. The argument that a printer takes too long to resume operation is not true: Almost all devices wake up from standby mode with the same speed as they do from the sleep-mode. Comparing energy consumption of multifunctional devices in the standby and the sleep modes is also advisable.
Inkjet printers are more frugal. Many models require less than our limit value of 3 Watts in the standby mode.
Communications and network
W-LAN routers, DSL modems and DECT telephones do not have a standby mode since they must always be ready for operation. But low power consumption is a must since these devices are on 24 hours
a day, seven days a week.
OUR ECONOMY-TIP: W-LAN routers (with/ without modem) by Netgear, Trendnet , U.S.
External hard disks
Users are increasingly buying 3.5 inch external hard disks as backup devices for desktop and notebook computers. These are also being used to extend the system storage. Once connected, it’s easy to forget that its power supply continues to draw power, even when nothing is being read or written to the disk. Only a few models have sophisticated power-saving mechanisms; Seagate devices are quite commendable. Most devices do not have a ‘Power’ button. The 3.5-inch hard drives need 12 Volts and therefore they have an external power
supply unit(power brick). But 2.5-inch drives require just 5 Volts and they can draw power from the PC via a USB cable.
Since they draw power from the PC’s power supply unit, the 2.5-inch drives will switch off automatically when the PC shuts down. Drive manufacturers are now incorporating features such as the reduced RPM low-power idle mode. This is seen in some Hitachi
DVD and video
Older DVD players and recorders are power hogs. Some devices consume up to 25 Watts in the standby mode and a switch-off button is absent. You can save energy in most such devices with a simple trick: The HF amplifier in DVD recorders is responsible for consuming a good amount of electricity in the standby mode. The amplifier refreshes the incoming antenna signal for the television, which is perhaps connected with an antenna cable. If one places the recorder and the television next to each other and connects them to the antenna using a T-connector, this amplification is rendered useless. Many devices have the option of completely deactivating the HF output in the set-up. Older video recorders often have sliding switches for this.
TIP: If one programs a recording with VPS in a DVD, Video or a DVB hard disk ecorder, it indicates that the tuner will supervise the VPS signal. If one programs a recording without VPS, certain video recorders will require only 3.5 Watts instead of 7 Watts.
Monitor and television
Even though monitors still have a soft-off button (they are not disconnected from the mains), the energy consumption is lower than 0.1 Watts in most models. Their point of similarity: they all have an integrated power supply unit. If you are still using an old TFT device, it could use more energy. If the external power supply unit heats up to a great extent when the display is off, then your LCD monitor is a power hog. Power consumption of 10 Watts in the standby mode is typical. Incidentally, the same applies for LCD TVs. But it is different case with tube-based displays. Such TV devices require thrice the power (30 Watts in the standby mode). Corresponding monitors require up to 10 Watts. Even plasma televisions are considered as big energy devourers.
But this is true only when they are in operation; they are surprisingly frugal in the standby mode. For instance, a 40-inch device in operation consumes 300 Watts as against a mere 2 Watts when it is in standby mode.
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