http://www.greenlivingonline.com/Business/greening-the-internet/
(Jan 21, 2008)
The Internet keeps us connected, helps us share information and reduces travel time. But it also has a big carbon footprint. It is estimated that globally it takes about 868 billion kWh of electricity per year to power. 
That’s a whopping 14 power plants worth of energy and about three percent of all the energy consumption in the USA, which adds up to a lot of energy and a lot of CO2 emissions. The good news is there are green web hosting companies out there.
Carbon offsetting a start
The more traditional companies like WebHostingBuzz and Host Papa use conventional energy but purchase carbon offsetting to balance energy usage. Green ISP/Green Webhost takes it one step further and powers all its offices with solar energy. It is also building Europe’s first solar powered data centre using power from California.
For the greenest web page
B.C. based Solar Energy Host also offers web hosting powered by solar energy. The company has 120 solar panels and is 100 percent carbon free.
"We use clean energy right from the source. The energy saved by our data center reduces about 9,071 kilograms (20,000 pounds) of CO2 per year," said President Aaron Handford. "If your website is currently sitting on a server powered by energy from the grid, then you are tied to a system where you can never be sure where that energy is coming from, possibly from the burning of coal or other greenhouse gas producing sources. "
By going solar, the company also reduces 2.68 kilograms (5.9 lbs) of Nitrous Oxide (NOX/smog) per year and .20 kilograms (0.45 lbs) of Sulfur Dioxide (SO4/acid rain) per year
Not just the Internet
According to Handford, there are two ways energy gets consumed. "One is by computers used to surf the web, and the other is the energy used to create and power its infrastructure -- like servers, power lines, associated PCs, routing infrastructure and phone networks."
So while it’s important to find a green server, it also crucial for you to green your own computer. Hanford suggests always turning off the computer when it’s not in use and NOT using a screen saver when your computer is in sleep mode.
Turn it all off
You can get some serious power savings just by turning off the equipment you won’t be using at night.
Your computer and its peripherals are still drawing power even when you shut down your computer. (That black monitor is actually just in standby mode and it uses energy waiting for the PC to switch back on.) Power adaptors for phones, iPods and digital cameras also suck up energy even when not connected to the actual device. The simplest way to stop these energy vampires is to connect everything to a power strip that you can switch off.
Techlogg did a test of how much energy could be saved by turning off your work computer at the end of the workday. Just by powering down and not leaving your computer in standby mode, you can go from using 140-watts down to around 8W per day. That adds up to saving 1,584 watt-hours every day, 578.1kilowatt-hours per year -- just for one PC.
The modems we use to connect to the Internet are also energy guzzlers, particularly since they don’t have a standby mode. They manage to pull 8.5W of energy even when you’re not using it. Turning them off at night can add up to considerable savings as well -- Techlogg estimated at least 24.82 kilowatt-hours of energy per year per modem.
Only good for the outdated
What about Blackle.com and other sites that save energy by displaying dark colour schemes to decrease power consumption? It turns out that dark coloured screens don’t save that much energy unless you have an old fashioned monitor. If you’re using a LCD display, the savings are minimal.
What does save energy is keeping your computer clean of Spyware -- since all that snooping around eats up your computer’s processing power, making it slow and inefficient. You can also cut your power consumption in half by dropping your screen’s brightness and taking advantage of the built-in power management most computers have (including desktops). Optimize your computer’s operating system while saving energy.
Deirdre Rowland is a media specialist and communications consultant. Her favourite projects are the ones that make the world a better place.
Greening the Internet
Image: istockphoto.com
That’s a whopping 14 power plants worth of energy and about three percent of all the energy consumption in the USA, which adds up to a lot of energy and a lot of CO2 emissions. The good news is there are green web hosting companies out there.
Carbon offsetting a start
The more traditional companies like WebHostingBuzz and Host Papa use conventional energy but purchase carbon offsetting to balance energy usage. Green ISP/Green Webhost takes it one step further and powers all its offices with solar energy. It is also building Europe’s first solar powered data centre using power from California.
For the greenest web page
B.C. based Solar Energy Host also offers web hosting powered by solar energy. The company has 120 solar panels and is 100 percent carbon free.
"We use clean energy right from the source. The energy saved by our data center reduces about 9,071 kilograms (20,000 pounds) of CO2 per year," said President Aaron Handford. "If your website is currently sitting on a server powered by energy from the grid, then you are tied to a system where you can never be sure where that energy is coming from, possibly from the burning of coal or other greenhouse gas producing sources. "
By going solar, the company also reduces 2.68 kilograms (5.9 lbs) of Nitrous Oxide (NOX/smog) per year and .20 kilograms (0.45 lbs) of Sulfur Dioxide (SO4/acid rain) per year
Not just the Internet
According to Handford, there are two ways energy gets consumed. "One is by computers used to surf the web, and the other is the energy used to create and power its infrastructure -- like servers, power lines, associated PCs, routing infrastructure and phone networks."
So while it’s important to find a green server, it also crucial for you to green your own computer. Hanford suggests always turning off the computer when it’s not in use and NOT using a screen saver when your computer is in sleep mode.
Turn it all off
You can get some serious power savings just by turning off the equipment you won’t be using at night.
Your computer and its peripherals are still drawing power even when you shut down your computer. (That black monitor is actually just in standby mode and it uses energy waiting for the PC to switch back on.) Power adaptors for phones, iPods and digital cameras also suck up energy even when not connected to the actual device. The simplest way to stop these energy vampires is to connect everything to a power strip that you can switch off.
Techlogg did a test of how much energy could be saved by turning off your work computer at the end of the workday. Just by powering down and not leaving your computer in standby mode, you can go from using 140-watts down to around 8W per day. That adds up to saving 1,584 watt-hours every day, 578.1kilowatt-hours per year -- just for one PC.
The modems we use to connect to the Internet are also energy guzzlers, particularly since they don’t have a standby mode. They manage to pull 8.5W of energy even when you’re not using it. Turning them off at night can add up to considerable savings as well -- Techlogg estimated at least 24.82 kilowatt-hours of energy per year per modem.
Only good for the outdated
What about Blackle.com and other sites that save energy by displaying dark colour schemes to decrease power consumption? It turns out that dark coloured screens don’t save that much energy unless you have an old fashioned monitor. If you’re using a LCD display, the savings are minimal.
What does save energy is keeping your computer clean of Spyware -- since all that snooping around eats up your computer’s processing power, making it slow and inefficient. You can also cut your power consumption in half by dropping your screen’s brightness and taking advantage of the built-in power management most computers have (including desktops). Optimize your computer’s operating system while saving energy.
Deirdre Rowland is a media specialist and communications consultant. Her favourite projects are the ones that make the world a better place.
2 Comments
posted Feb 17, 2008 - 10:31 pm by Eofu
Most people don't realize but leaving your computer on with it conntected to the internet is a security risk too.A lot of people who have Broadband Internet like Cable or DSL have their modems always on.
Hackers scan IP address ranges for computers that are vulnerable to attack this is refered to as "vulnerability scanning".
Without power, your comptuer can't be scanned because the computer isn't online to be hacked!
But to be fair, turning your computer on and off all the time isn't very healthy for the PC's power supply which is getting it's internal circuits jolted with electricity before stabilizing the current.
posted Apr 19, 2008 - 11:01 pm by A
Don't turn off your modem if you have one that has wireless connection, unless you want other people using your internet.
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