Green Options » PC

Give a Green PC from CherryPal for Christmas

Brenda Keener — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:43:30 +0000

Mountain View, California-based startup CherryPal announced that it is now shipping a fully green desktop PC (the C114) as of December 2nd, just in time for it to be a perfect green Christmas present. Although it is a desktop, it is about the size of a paperback book - perfect for space limited computer users. It consumes only 2 Watts of power (the company’s website tells us this is about the same as a clock radio), and uses cloud computing, so there is no need to run the constant virus and spyware checkers that consumes another valuable resource, time. As it uses 80% fewer parts than most PCs, it generates less waste in the manufacturing process. As electronics manufacturing uses many toxic and hard to eliminate chemicals, it showed great foresight on the part of the founder of CherryPal (and ingenuity) in designing it this way.

The C114 also has no moving parts, meaning it should last about 10 years. This is significant, as computer junk has become a large contributor to the size of our landfills, despite the newly emerging electronics recycling efforts I see throughout Silicon Valley.

Verdiem Launch Free Software to Slash PC Power Use Up to 80 Percent

Andrew Williams — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:25:13 +0000

PC energy saving specialists Verdiem have today released free downloadable software designed to help users slash their energy use up to a massive 80 percent.

According to Allison Cornia, vice president of product management at Verdiem, “If we could get just 10 per cent of the world’s one billion PCs using [the product] properly we could save 32 billion kilograms of CO2 a year. That’s equivalent to taking half a million cars off the road.”

Green PCs and Optimizing their Lifecycle

Michelle Bennett — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:34:59 +0000

Let me be the first to confess: I love my laptop. I spend more time with it than most people in my life, including family, room mates, and boyfriend. I might even go so far as to admit an unhealthy infatuation with the Internet, writing, and a handful of computer games. Yet as an aspiring environmentalist, my electronic sidekick poses an uneasy paradox. How do I lay claim to “green” (whatever that really means) when I spend so much of my time plugged in?

Computers aren’t very environmentally friendly. They contain lead, mercury, cadmium, lots of plastic, and they thirst for electricity. Most people don’t realize that most of a computer can be recycled, so most discarded computers head to the landfill where the heavy metals can contaminate local water and air. Computers and electronics have become disposable in our culture, so the amount of electronic waste generated each year is astounding. Fortunately these are not problems without solutions. Starting from the beginning of a computer’s life to its demise, it can be easy to optimize everything about your PC.

Buying, Building, and Design

With the new popularity of green, critics have been quick to turn on companies like Apple for pumping out so many gadgets. The good news is that companies have been quick to respond with energy-efficient models, recycling programs, and improved design. Many “green” initiatives focus on energy efficiency but ignore manufacturing or end-life issues, so be wary of their “environmental” credentials. If you find a product or company that can vouch for the creation, use, and disposal of their products, you’ve struck gold. The good news is that newer models use fewer harmful chemicals and metals, require less energy, and improve performance. Lean, and mean is the angle many companies are aiming for with “green” patched on to sell. Laptops are the best example of this trend as they become smaller and more powerful simultaneously. So rest easy knowing that if you must buy a new computer, it will probably be more efficient than your old one… assuming you don’t hook a brand new 60-inch flat screen to it.

Tame The Energy Hog on Your Desk: Service Helps Manage Computer Power

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:12:39 +0000

By now, most of us know that leaving our computers on when we’re not using them wastes energy. But exactly how much energy?
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program, using the power management functions on your computer properly can cut your electric bill by up to $75 a year. But even more impressive is the greenhouse gas savings we could generate by managing our computers better: according to Carbonfund.org, activating the power management features on 100,000 computers and monitors would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 11 million pounds a year. That’s like burning 13,000 fewer barrels of oil, eliminating 5,000 car trips from Los Angeles to New York or planting 1,000 acres of trees

So why don’t more people set up their computers to be more energy-efficient?

Uncertainty and fear, according to support.com.

A remote tech support company based in Redwood City, California, support.com recently commissioned a survey of 1,000 Americans to learn what they knew about computer power management. The company found out that, while 87 percent of people said they were aware of those functions on their computers, more than half (57 percent) hadn’t activated them. Many of those said it was because they didn’t know how to set the functions, or they were afraid of doing it wrong.

Looking at those results, support.com decided to introduce a new service called "Green Computer." The free service, available as of this week by calling 800-PC-SUPPORT, helps people customize their computer’s power management functions to their personal preferences, walks through ways to make sure those functions are working properly, and suggests other ways to save on computer energy consumption. Each call takes about 10 to 15 minutes.

"In talking with consumers about energy-efficient computer use, we found there was a lot of confusion," said Scott Herring, vice president of marketing for support. com. "Some people weren’t aware of the power management functions, others didn’t know how to activate them, and even more didn’t understand the difference between a ’screensaver’ and putting a computer into ’sleep mode.’ People were surprised to hear that a screensaver is not an energy saver. By offering this free Green Computer service, support.com expects to help a lot of consumers perform a simple but effective act to save energy."

Besides activating your computer’s power management functions, you can cut your desktop’s energy consumption by following these other tips: turn your computer off completely if you know you won’t be using it for a few hours, make sure games and third-party software are shut down before putting your computer into sleep mode (otherwise, they might continue running in the background), disconnect your virtual private network when you’re not using it (again, leaving it connected can prevent your computer from sleeping properly), and close any open Web windows so banners and ads don’t interfere with your PC’s nap.

Oh, and forget the screensaver. Just like it’s best for people to go to bed with the TV off, computers sleep better (more energy-efficiently, anyway) with a blank screen.