Green Computing Guide
The growing use of computers on campus has caused a dramatic increase in energy consumption, putting negative pressure on CU’s budget and the environment. Each year 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.
Research reveals that most personal desktop computers are not being used the majority of the time they are running and many personal computers nationwide are needlessly left on continuously. 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.
Energy Efficient Computing
Some tested suggestions that may make it possible for you to reduce your computer energy consumption by 80 percent or more while still retaining most or all productivity and other benefits of your computer system, including network connectivity.
http://chronicle.com/free/2009/01/10296n.htm
Campus Computing Goes Green to Save Money
Relocate a college's server computers next to a solar-power generator. Replace AC power with DC power. Cool the servers only where they get the hottest. Put the servers in the ocean and power them with waves.
Those were a few of the ideas discussed last week at a conference, "Greening the Internet Economy," that was designed to address the problem of the soaring financial and environmental costs of information technology. The event, held by the University of California at San Diego, offered a sampling of a new generation of technologies that promise to help colleges make their IT departments both more efficient and more sustainable.
Many of the participants emphasized the importance of systems that could more intelligently measure energy use on the campus. In recent years, colleges have been hurt by the rising costs of powering and cooling their data centers, in part because those costs are difficult to measure and poorly understood (The Chronicle, January 9).
At San Diego, researchers have started work on hardware to help colleges and other organizations understand how to make their servers more efficient. The device, called the GreenLight Instrument, will deploy sensors and software to measure the energy use, humidity, and other variables in various parts of a Sun Modular Data Center, a popular, self-contained complex of servers.
The goal is to encourage engineers to try different computing strategies to reduce electricity consumption, said Thomas A. DeFanti, principal investigator on the project and a senior research strategist at the university's California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology.
http://ecenter.colorado.edu/energy/projects/green_computing.html
Seeing Green
Adelphi University finds seven ways to save power.
http://www.edtechmag.com/higher/september-october-2007/seeing-green.html
How the university can adopt this concept?
By simply following the the green computing practices like reducing the amount that you print, turning off your computer and monitor when not in use, as well as using sleep and hibernate modes when your computer is on. When it's time to buy a computer, consider a notebook or small-size desktop. These use less electricity than traditional desktops.In this way, we can contribute to reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximize energy efficiency during the product's lifetime, and promote recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste.
This is not a quick fix that can happen overnight. You can implement this one step at a time.
Every little step you take makes a difference.
These include
Green Computing is not just about saving the environment; it is about saving money and creating the most efficient data center possible. The rest falls into place and you are also impacting the world we live in for the next generation.
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