Update: Added third paragraph from LC in quote and Reality Check
Yes I know, techies/geeks can adjust shutdown options on their computers to save energy. I do it too. This application tracks how many computers are using their program and the net energy savings in terms of KWhs, gallons of oil [barrels would be better - divide by 55] and the number of trees needed to balance the now saved carbon emissions.
As a beta program, right now the stats are basic and don’t include the number of computers that team and/or companies have using the program, but I have a fix for that. See below.
More than 30 billion kilowatt-hours of energy is wasted because many of us simply forget to shut down our computers when we’re not using them. If we could just improve the efficiency of how we use our PCs, the savings in energy costs would be over $3 billion dollars! The CO2 emissions from just 15 computers are equivalent in energy terms to the gas consumption used by one car.
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By adjusting the power mode settings our advanced algorithms will predict how much you will save based on past PC usage and statistical data. Every time LocalCooling saves power by either turning of your screen, putting your hard drive to sleep when not used or shutting down your PC when you are away your savings stats will start to grow. Download LocalCooling today and optimize your PC’s energy efficiency in minutes.
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Our goal is to introduce 100,000,000 PC users into the Local Cooling community. If just 100 million of us optimize the efficiency of our computers’ energy consumption, we could prevent over 300 billion kg of CO2 gas emissions, equivalent to over 1.8 billion gallons of oil, in just the first year alone.*
Team challenge
When you create your profile, in the form field that says “Join a group” put ChangeEverythingFriends
Send an email to aapATgreatdayDOTca with your stats feed after you install the program and I will add you to this team page which also shows you how to turn of the beep sounds the program makes.
For people and companies with multiple computers:
You download the program and login with the same account on all computers. Once you have been running the application on all systems this will be stated in your account view. This will add all your savings from all computers to your account.
Tell me how many computers you are running.
TreeHugger gives a lukewarm review, but the comments are more positive.
*Reality check: 1.8 billion gallons of oil is equivalent to 42,857,142 barrels of oil. LC uses gallons to make their numbers look bigger. According to US Dept of Energy November 2006 statistics, the US consumes 20,802,000 barrels/day, so 100,000,000 computers for a year on LocalCooling will save two days U.S. oil consumption.
Obviously a lot more has to be done to solve the problems of global warming, but I have to start somewhere.
More stats:
Annual U.S. oil consumption 7,592,730,000 barrels
Local Cooling savings as a percentage: 0.56
World oil consumption: 83,990,000 barrels/day
Annually: 30,656,350,000
Local Cooling savings as a percentage: 0.13
Canadian oil consumption: 2,280,000 barrels/day
Annually: 832,200,000
Local Cooling savings as a percentage: 5.14
Are there 100,000,000 computers in Canada?:-)
Cross-posted to changeeverything.ca
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Technorati Tags: localcooling, globalwarming, climatechange, computer, hibernation, energy, saving, software, vancouver
A significant amount of energy is wasted from computer being left on when not being used. I think that this is an important issue to draw people’s attention to.
But, I wanted to point out that most computer still use power even when shutdown or the power switch is turned off. This is sometimes called a “phantom load.”
So we when you are finished with your computer at the end of the day not only should you power it down but also unplug it or better yet have it plugged into a powerbar that can be turned off.
rob_ — February 19th, 2007 at 6:40 pmRob,
Good points, all of them. I try to remember the phantom load when it comes to my television, dvd player and radio/cd player too.
Other ways to reduce energy consumption:
All the light bulbs in my suite are compact florescent and there’s a 30 minute windup light switch in the laundry room.
I also use a space heater and have an electronic timer [another phantom load, I suppose] that turns it off for most of the hours I am not in the house and turns it back on 30 minutes before I get home. In all during the winter, the heater is off 14 hours of the day. In summer, even the timer is unplugged.
So, you going to join LocalCooling’s project.
Al — February 20th, 2007 at 9:50 am“So, you going to join LocalCooling’s project.”
Unfortunately I do most of my work on a Linux system these days so I can’t install LocalCooling.
rob_ — February 20th, 2007 at 4:18 pmYeah, gotta admit I’m guilty of leaving my computer on for days when it’s not being used. Will be sure to turn if off now. Thanks.
Pittsburgh IT Maintenance — August 21st, 2008 at 11:26 am