By Gemma Simpson, 4 July 2007 17:02
NEWS
Homeworking is often touted as one way to help cut carbon emissions but now workers are being urged to keep their power consumption down when working from home (WFH).
The Ampere Strikes Back report from the Energy Saving Trust (EST) said: "The rise in the phenomenon of the home office and the popularity of working from home has led to an increase in the number of homes kitted out with a range of equipment that used to only be seen in the workplace."
The EST report urges homeworkers to consider a number of options to bring down power consumption when WFH, such as buying an energy savings mains controller which automatically switches off peripherals when the computer is off, making sure the sleep mode is on and the computer is off when the working day is over.
The difference in running an energy efficient PC with sleep modes and which is turned off when it's not needed compared with a high energy consuming model left on 24/7 can be more than £100 per year, according to the EST.
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The total electricity use of domestic computers has doubled between 2000 and 2005 and in 2005 more than nine per cent of the total domestic electricity bill was due to computers and their peripherals, according to figures from government sustainability body the Market Transformation Programme.
Consumption is expected to increase by a further 30 per cent between 2006 and 2020. This is not only due to the continued growth of the home computer market but also because of the higher specification and therefore more energy-intensive machines, according to the EST.
By 2020, the EST predicts entertainment, computers and gadgets will account for 45 per cent of electricity used in the home.
Comments
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1. Harry the Hedgehog
I'm pretty sure WFH is much greener than doing a 90-mile round trip to work. This is what I'd have to do if I worked for one of those an old-school companies who equate WFH with goofing off.
Agree with the point that people should not leave machines on, even in standby mode. I wonder how many turn power off at mains for laptops, adapters typically gobbling up 65W / hour.
2. anonymous
OK, OK, good sense to be prudent and save yourself money...... but I'm getting truly fed up with all these sanctimonious organisations leaping on the "green guilt" bandwagon to generate a press release about something, anything, just as long as we can get it published.
DUH..... the power usage probably nets out at about zero increase from WFH, unless you are actually daft enough to leave a PC running in the office as well. Presumably your body heat is not being cooled by the company's air conditioning (a saving) and, if you are like me, your study at home is being warmed well enough by your PC and lights to reduce use of heating - a net swap of energy from one use to another.
And then there is all that petrol - let's say 1-2 gallons I have not used - PER DAY.
What a totally spurious press release - shame on Silicon.com for propagating it and not mocking them!
3. Simon
Harry the Hedgehog asked "I wonder how many turn power off at mains for laptops, adapters typically gobbling up 65W / hour."
What utter rubbish ! The adapters take whatever the laptop requires/consumes plus whatever inefficiencies the adapter has. So if the laptop is idling and only requires 20W then the adapter will only supply it with 20W and will only draw perhaps 22-24W from the mains.
So please forget the rubbish about devices always taking their rating plate power consumption.