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Home -> Resources -> Twenty-One Green IT Tips -> 3. Consider the ENERGY STAR Rating When Buying
3. Consider the ENERGY STAR Rating When Buying One measure of eco-friendliness is energy efficiency. Getting the most energy efficient computer starts at purchase time, when you are choosing a computer or monitor to buy. Whether you are looking to purchase one computer or one-hundred computers, there is a lot of good information on the ENERGY STAR web site. Web search:  ENERGY STAR
An easy way to take advantage of this program is to look for the ENERGY STAR label on computers (and other products) that you buy. ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the US Department of Energy and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The program establishes benchmarks for a wide range of products. To earn the ENERGY STAR designation, a product has to perform significantly better than other products in that product category. Does It Really Make A Difference? The ENERGY STAR label lets you know that a given product has higher performance than other products. With computers, there are four categories (identified as A, B, C, and D) based on the amount of RAM and number of CPU cores. Within each of these categories, measurements are taken for the amount of power used when off, when in standby (sleep), and when in idle. Based on "typical usage", which means 55% of the time "off", 5% of the time in "sleep", and 40% of the time in "idle", a total number of expected kilowatt-hours is calculated. This number is known as "TEC", which is short for Typical Energy Consumption. (For some products on the ENERGY STAR website, the 'E' in "TEC" sometimes stands for "Electricity".) Web search: ENERGY STAR Typical Energy Consumption An Example. Here is an example of what it means to earn the ENERGY STAR label for a desktop computer system. A Category-A computer has 1 or 2 CPU cores and less than 2 gigabytes of RAM. Based on the typical usage pattern defined by ENERGY STAR (55% off / 5% sleep / 40% idle), to earn the ENERGY STAR label, a system must use less than 148 kilo-watt hours (kWh) per year. The average cost of running such a system is $17 or less per year (based on an average electricity rate of 11.28 cents per kilowatt hour). Behind the ENERGY STAR Label ENERGY STAR provides a good starting point for selecting more efficient computer desktop, notebook, and computer monitors. If you want even more information, you can find detailed information on all of the ENERGY-STAR qualified products. You can find out, for example, the Typical Energy Consumption (TEC) value for each of the computers which have the ENERGY STAR label. What you will find is that within each of the four categories, there is a surprising range of values for the typical energy consumption. For Category-A computers, the low end of TECs is 47 kWh (which equates to an annual electricity cost of $5.30, given 11.28 cents per kWh). At the high end, some systems have expected usage of 200+ kWh per year ($22.56 annual electricity cost). If you are working with a very tight energy budget, you will need to look beyond the ENERGY STAR label and dig into the details for the specific products that you are interested in purchasing. |
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