Try making a list of the electronic goodies in your home and you’re sure to come up with a collection that will surprise you. As you’re reading a computer magazine, it’s safe to assume there’ll be at least one desktop or notebook PC in the home. You may also have a printer, scanner, digital camera or router.
Home entertainment and communications equipment is an even bigger category, with many homes now boasting mobile and cordless phones, satellite boxes, games consoles, audio systems, mp3 players and hard disk recorders.
Then there are our washing machines, dishwashers and kitchen gadgets, not to mention the elaborate network of lights and heaters that ring many homes. The extent to which we now depend on electricity for essentials tools and life’s little helpers is quite astounding.
It’s also of great concern to a growing number of scientists, politicians and charities, because everything we’ve mentioned so far has one thing in common: they all devour power, and some of them eat it up all day and night.
Collectively, these devices have a significant impact on the amount of fuel used to generate the power they consume. The total energy consumption per household is used to calculate what’s called a carbon footprint. This footprint is just a simple way of measuring how much carbon dioxide people contribute every year to the greenhouse gases that many fear are warming our planet.
With politicians of all persuasions realising that ecological issues are a hot topic, and those who were once sceptical about global warming, such as Sir David Attenborough, now changing their tune, definitive information and advice is hard to come by.
So we decided to investigate the issue, attempt to dispel myths where we found them and, in conjunction with our colleagues at sister title Personal Computer World, develop a set of practical ways in which technology enthusiasts can make a difference, however small.
We’ve also put together a website containing many of the news stories and articles we’ve written on the subjects of power consumption and sensible recycling, which you’ll find here.
Where the power goes
Power consumption is gauged by measuring in watts (W) the amount of energy a
device consumes per second and expressed in kilowatt hours (KWh). For a full
explanation, see
here.
A typical PC with monitor consumes around 120W, while an electric kettle would consume 1800W. Although these figures seem to indicate that computers are not a major factor in driving up household bills and carbon emissions, you have to consider how long each device is used for.
Typically, a kettle might be turned on four times a day for a two-minute boil. That’s only eight minutes a day, which means a total daily consumption of 1.7KWh. A PC that’s used for home entertainment and internet browsing might be turned on for many hours at 120W.
More than half of the respondents to our survey said their PC was switched on for 40 hours a week or more, which works out at 4.8KWh. Therefore the PC can make a significant net contribution to global warming.
Nearly all the high-drain devices in a home (dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, microwaves, electric showers, kettles and washing machines) are used for only short periods so there is little scope for using them more economically, apart from choosing the most energy-efficient models when the time comes to replace them.
By law, multi-coloured EU energy labels must be attached to all domestic appliances, rating them from A++ to G, where G is the most power-hungry. By choosing equipment in the A bands you’ll be doing yourself, and the planet, a big favour.
Unfortunately, computing and home-entertainment equipment is not tagged with the same easy-to-understand energy labels, but it’s a sobering fact that many widescreen plasma TVs consume more power than a fridge-freezer. If you have a plasma TV, do you turn it off when you’re not watching it? Significant savings can be made simply by switching things off when you’re not using them – everything from DAB radios to electric lights.
The same goes for computer equipment, which is sometimes left running overnight when downloading from the internet or backing up data. If the PC is performing a lengthy operation, at least turn off the monitor. The computer will work perfectly well without it. Also, check whether the program you use for downloading or backing up has a ‘Turn off this PC when finished’ option. If so, use it.
