Power Plays on Energy Management

During 2009, Americans, using energy efficient “smart appliances” will save over $19 billion on their energy bills and reduced greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of 29 million cars. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of old refrigerators and freezers out there needlessly draining the grid of valuable power. U.S. households have 44.5 million fridges over 10 years old, 12.7 million of which are secondary units, often in basements and garages. Of this total, 6.1 million primary and 4.1 million second refrigerators are at least 20 years old. And older freezers are common; 16.9 million homes have freezers more than 10 years old -- that's 44 percent of all freezers. Combined, the inefficient freezers and refrigerators noted above use $4.9 billion per year in energy costs.

Companies leading the “smart appliance” growth sector include Bosch Home Appliances, LG Electronics (LGERF.PK), Miele, General Electric (GE), Haier Electronics Group (HRELF.PK), Whirlpool - Maytag Corporation (WHR), Panasonic (PC) and Carrier - United Technologies Corporation (UTX) are among the qualified appliances offering advanced technologies that use 10–50% less energy and water, look for energy-efficient clothes washers, refrigerators, dishwashers, room air conditioners and dehumidifiers.

Emerging are very promising energy management sectors particularly focused on the fact that 50% of all corporate PCs in the US are not regularly switched off at night, costing US businesses $1.72 billion in energy and causing emissions of 14.4 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to recently released PC Energy Awareness report.

The data shows that American businesses are wasting energy while we sleep. A mid-sized company, which includes about 10,000 PCs, wastes more than $165,000 a year in electricity costs for computers left on overnight. In addition, by turning these computers off, an employer can keep more than 1,381 tons of CO₂ out of the atmosphere. Preventing that amount of CO₂ from reaching the atmosphere would have roughly the same impact as taking 2.58 million passenger cars entirely off the road -- more cars than exist in the entire state of Maryland.

Several recent studies show that energy costs -- typically 10 percent of the corporate technology budget -- could rise to as much as 50 percent in the next few years.

Power management software can reduce a PC's power consumption by 80 percent, allowing companies to save $25 to $75 per desktop PC. Beyond automated shut-down, power savings are derived during the day by automating monitor shut-off after a period of inactivity.

That's why, although financial incentives went unmentioned during today's announcement of the new AT&T (T) new power management strategy, it was certainly a main driver of the decision.

AT&T announced that it would be installing the NightWatchman PC power management software from British company 1E Ltd. on around 310,000 desktop computers in AT&T's U.S. facilities. As a result, AT&T expects to trim its electricity use by 135 million kilowatt hours per year. That adds up to a lot of cash: if AT&T is paying around the U.S. average rate per kilowatt hour of electricity, it will save $13.6 million per year in electricity costs. The move will also trim a huge amount of greenhouse gas emissions as well: AT&T estimates more than 120,000 tons of CO2 or CO2 equivalent avoided every year by saving all that electricity.

Companies such as Avocent (AVCT), Verizon (VZ) , Itron Inc. (ITRI), Xcel Energy's (XEL) , Google Inc. (GOOG), and British Telecom Group (BT) are among several announcing moves towards corporate and home residential energy management technology helping to automate thermostats, window shades, smart appliances and electronic devices that can be managed via a network to operate more efficiently significantly reducing energy costs.

Microsoft (MSFT) Windows 7 operating system, set for release in Fall 2009, includes new “green” IT power management network tools that make enterprise PCs run more efficiently saving energy costs.

The 220 million wireless device and cell phone users in the U.S. can now remotely access energy management applications announced by companies such as start-up Tendril Networks, Inc., Savoy Software Automation or Google’s “smart meter” joint venture with San Diego Gas & Power – Sempra Energy (SRE) and Microsoft’s joint venture with Itron developing wireless “smart web applications” allowing customers to see their home energy utility consumption in real time, view dynamic energy pricing changes, control connected appliances and thermostats remotely. Several features include text-message updates, power consumption graphs and carbon footprint savings information offering improved energy cost management.

Disclosure: The author at the time of writing this article had no significant direct interests in the companies listed.

Comments

[c300man:]

Simple on-off switches can be effective too. It shouldn't be expecting too much to ask employees to turn off their computer and the lights when they are not going to be used for a few hours or certainly for overnight. People can adjust blinds and turn down / up thermostats too.

New technology that takes over all these simple responsibilities is fine and needs to be developed but there is no mention of their cost and on-going maintenance / upgrading expenses. It is always prudent to question just how complicated you want to make a simple task and what are the true savings.

May 26 07:50 AM

[buoy:]

Amen, c300man.

May 26 08:41 AM

[john s. gordon:]

remember office pc's left on unnecessarily in summer add to the air-conditioning load, so there is a multiplier effect.
> jack

May 26 09:04 AM

[macsmart:]

Plug in your TV, VCR, DVD player and Cable Box to a power strip and turn the switch to off at night when you're through watching. Why pay to run your DVD and Cable Box all night?

Plug your Computer, speakers, printer, etc into a power strip and turn it off at night for the same reason.

May 26 03:22 PM

[gemchance7:]

Tendril Networks products are awesome! I would love to know where and when i can get them. Great site at tendrilinc.com

May 28 12:58 AM