Energy Efficient Computers - Challenges

CHALLENGES AND BARRIERS TO ADOPTION

While Energy Star computers have been very successful, with thousands of qualified models from all of the major manufacturers, some barriers to adoption still remain. The trend towards ever higher performance, for example, often runs contrary to energy efficiency. Computers designed for graphics-intensive modeling programs or games can use more than ten times as much energy as a typical laptop. Large LCD screens can also use more energy. As a result, while most home and office computers can easily be made more energy efficient, the highest-end computers remain very energy intensive. Even for those computers, however, new improvements to reduce idling power (when the computer is on but not actively processing information) can dramatically reduce energy consumption without impacting performance.

For computer power management, user behavior and education are the most significant barriers. Many users prefer to leave their computers on rather than taking the time to turn them off or put them into standby mode. While all computers have the ability to automatically go into standby mode after a period of inactivity, some users are not aware of this capability, and others choose to disable it. Still others install screen savers, thinking they will save energy, when in fact these programs can prevent a computer from entering standby or hibernation mode.

Large corporations, meanwhile, often ask employees to leave their computers on all night to enable automatic software updates. While there is software available to enable corporate IT departments to remotely "wake up" shut down computers to deliver software updates, not all IT departments are aware of this option. This is a significant challenge to address - according to a recent survey by 1E and Harris Interactive, nearly half of all employees do not regularly shut down their computers at night, and of those, 44% leave their computers on because they believe it to be IT policy.

IT departments also tend not to enable or enforce automatic hibernation or standby after a period of inactivity; according to the 1E/Harris survey, only half of employees regularly using PCs had hibernation mode enabled. While there are extensive technical resources available through the Energy Star program, helping large corporations to quantify the value of energy efficient computers and to identify options to increase efficiency remains a significant challenge.

Photo Credit:  Image reprinted with permission from ViewSonic Corporation; ViewSonic VLED 221