Talk:LocalCooling
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Local cooling against global warming by Martin Debattista featured in i-tech, Times of Malta [1] Last year i-Tech carried a report on the power consumption of electronic products, especially computers and related hardware. With the hefty surcharge on utility bills, it made sense at the time to reduce consumption, even though a 100-watt computer would only cost 0c4 per hour at a 4c per kilowatt tariff.
Software company Uniblue Systems thinks money is not the only issue related to energy consumption and has just launched an initiative to make computer users aware of the fact that wiser energy consumption of their machines contributes towards a better environment.
It is estimated more than 30 billion kilowatts of energy are wasted because people forget to shut down their computers when leaving the office. The carbon dioxide emissions from 15 computers are equivalent in energy terms to the fuel used by one car. Malta-based Uniblue Systems created a downloadable application, available at http://www.localcooling.com, that automatically finds a computer's power settings and presents them in an easy-to-use interface which lets the user optimise the energy efficiency of their PC. This means savings on electricity bills for the users and also reduces the amount of gases emitted from powering a computer.
Though energy-saving options are familiar to laptop users who have to make batteries last as long as possible, desktop computer users running on the electric supply may overlook the importance of saving on energy.
"The idea was originally conceived by the Uniblue Labs team - a division of the company responsible for creating innovative solutions - as an in-house project to make Uniblue more power-efficient, therefore doing our bit to make a difference to the escalating issue of global warming," explained Bosse Malmberg, the Swedish owner and chief executive officer of Uniblue.
"As we were working on it, we thought that if we were taking time to develop this for ourselves, we should also release it to the public, hence the idea for the website and the interface was born. We had the basic programme and then developed the idea to make it interactive and fun to use, adding meaningful environmental statistics and Top 100 league tables for individuals, teams and companies."
Uniblue aims to create a community at http://www.localcooling.com and has added a forum for users, instructions how to link to blogs and other websites, and a messaging system for users to spread the message about global cooling to their friends and contacts.
Within a few days of being launched, around 1,100 users saved over 800 KWh, equivalent to over 400 gallons of oil and 40 trees.
The goal is to introduce 100 million PC users to the Local Cooling community. With that many members they could prevent over 300 billion kilos of gas emissions each year.
The question is obvious: How can tiny Malta contribute and make a difference? Thanks to internet, it seems possible.
The company is hoping to spread the Local Cooling community worldwide and has set itself an ambitious target of 100 million members.
Uniblue was launched in 2003 and provides award-winning software products designed to deliver superior performance, protection and security to PC users in the home, small-office/home office and business markets.
The European Commission last year warned that up to 10 per cent of household consumption in Europe comes from equipment on stand-by mode.
The use of computer systems, complete with monitors, printers, modems and mobile phone chargers alone accounts for 20 per cent of energy consumption in households. This is costing European countries some €15 billion. The Commission also revealed that satellite, cable and digital terrestrial TV set-top boxes consume 28 watts at all times. Broadband equipment such as a modem and a router consume 20 watts at all times, even when not in use. This could correspond to up to five per cent of household consumption and total €84 a year calculated on average European tariffs.
[edit] Power conversion
A power plant can make about 21 kWh out of 1 gallon of crude oil. So: ........ saved over 800 KWh, equivalent to over 40 gallons of oil ..........
One gallon is equivalent to about 32 kg of fresh cut wood (70% moist)
So 40 gallons is about 1280 kg wood. I do not know how heavy a tree is, but the 40 trees are surely also overestimated.
89.98.14.66 18:01, 17 December 2006 (UTC)