Computers and the environment

I've always been a good greenie. My wife and I joke about it because we don't usually associate people with things, we don't put people into baskets... at least I try my best to flex my inner Buddhist by not judging people. It's something I'm aware of from my early teens.

However, there are times where I must put myself in a basket with my green hat on and talk about saving the environment in which I live in.

I'm proud to say that my wife and I combined use less water than a single person in Sydney. Our water bill tells us how much water we should be using, and it's less than what a single person is depicted to use. That's something we're proud of because we don't even try to save water. We just don't use much.

We are avid recyclers and not just from cans and bottles. I recycle anything by putting it back into use. The other day I had a client tell me their iPhone was no longer changing in the car. Anyone else in IT would have said "buy a new charger, it's broken". No. I pulled the charger apart and fixed the dry solder joint. A couple of weeks ago I repaired a laptop a customer dropped off and said the repair bill was going to cost almost as much as a new model. Well, I said I can fix it, but you'll have to pay for the parts and labour. He went to buy another laptop from the local JB Hifi. I fixed the cracked screen with a new one I had to buy. But I fixed the battery by pulling it apart and repairing a loose wire and a dry solder joint. Saving a battery from the land fill.

Now, being in IT, I have to keep abreast of cutting edge computing. However, I'm a little shocked that I'm seeing what I'm seeing. I received a new catalogue (Cattle Dog) from one of my suppliers today only to see replacement computer power supplies with no less than 800 Watts. Some going up to 1500 Watts and I'm sure there's higher if I look. So I started to look at why. And CPU's, motherboards, Video cards, etc. all consume more power.

I can understand why. PC's are more powerful than before. My current computers are nothing like what I had 10 years ago. Which is a fair call. However, you always hear about things getting more powerful but never do you hear about lower power consumption.

One of the services I offer in my business is products that match the customers needs. 95% of PC purchases are too highly specced for a customers needs. So I try to sell a computer that fits the needs of the customer. Not some overkill media box that you can produce Toy Story 17 on.

The advantages are that you get a smaller, quieter, more affordable and less energy taxing system. So you same money buying it and you save more money using it. It does the job when all you do is email, read blogs, chat and maybe do some basic home accounting.

The systems I sell all run Linux as well.

The main reason for this is, it cost nothing to purchase. Heavily reducing the purchase price of a PC. It's less taxing on system resources, so a computer while sitting idle will use less wattage than one running other operating systems.

If it uses less power, you save on your electricity bill, have a longer batter life, have more system resources for other tasks and don't need such a large power supply.

The good thing is laptops are more popular than ever. They use very little power in comparison to a desktop PC. However, when a laptop catastrophically fails, it's just about on its way to the scrap heap. When a desktop fails in the same manner, parts can be replaced economically.

Manufacturers are getting better at making computers with the environment in mind. No heavy metals, no mercury, or other materials that can cause significant impacts in the long run. However, that doesn't change the fact that they have put in a whopping great big power supply.

I think I'll stick to selling 'under powered' and second hand computers to help keep them off the landfills.

Is your computer too powerful for your needs?