Monday, August 10, 2009

Assignment #4

Green Tips for Everyone

http://greencampus.winserve.org/greencampus/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=40

  1. Use Energy Star Products.
  2. Replace Incandescent light bulbs with Compact Flourescent Lamps (CFL's).
  3. Turn lights off when you're not in the room/classroom.

- Naturally you should turn it off because no one is using the room for it would just consume and waste energy.

  1. Use half the lights when possible
  2. Use natural light when possible.
  3. Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
  4. Turn off computer's during the night.
  5. Use your computers "Stand-by" mode instead of screen savers.
  6. Plug Appliances that have phantom loads (anything that basically needs a remote or needs charging) into a surge protector and switch it off when appliances are not in use.
  7. Unplug Cell Phone Chargers when you're not charging your cell phone.
  8. Reduce the number of refrigerators in use by sharing refrigerators.
  9. Avoid leaving the refrigerator or freezer doors open.
  10. Remember to turn off the oven and stove tops
  11. Turn off curling and straightening irons and unplug hair dryers.
  12. Do laundry during off peak hours (after about 6 pm).

These tips could be use and can be adopted by the university. Some maybe but not all because this talk also have tips to be made at home which cannot be adopted in the university.

Campus Computing Goes Green to Save Money

http://chronicle.com/free/2009/01/10296n.htm

Relocate a college's server computers next to a solar-power generator. Replace AC power with DC power. Cool the servers only where they get the hottest. Put the servers in the ocean and power them with waves.

Those were a few of the ideas discussed last week at a conference, "Greening the Internet Economy," that was designed to address the problem of the soaring financial and environmental costs of information technology. The event, held by the University of California at San Diego, offered a sampling of a new generation of technologies that promise to help colleges make their IT departments both more efficient and more sustainable.

Many of the participants emphasized the importance of systems that could more intelligently measure energy use on the campus. In recent years, colleges have been hurt by the rising costs of powering and cooling their data centers, in part because those costs are difficult to measure and poorly understood (The Chronicle, January 9).

At San Diego, researchers have started work on hardware to help colleges and other organizations understand how to make their servers more efficient. The device, called the GreenLight Instrument, will deploy sensors and software to measure the energy use, humidity, and other variables in various parts of a Sun Modular Data Center, a popular, self-contained complex of servers.

The goal is to encourage engineers to try different computing strategies to reduce electricity consumption, said Thomas A. DeFanti, principal investigator on the project and a senior research strategist at the university's California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology.

"Right now there isn't enough information for somebody to make a definitive decision: Where do I save my money? Do I eliminate disks in my computers, or do I stop them? Do I use more RAM or less RAM?" said Mr. DeFanti. "Nobody has detailed information on this."

Aiming for Precision

Intelligent measuring systems like Greenlight should be extended to allow engineers to more precisely determine how to use energy, said Gary L. Baldwin, director of special projects at the University of California's Citris program. For example, he said, operators at a data center could direct cool air only where the facility is generating the most heat.

Another idea that shows promise, participants said, is to supply computers directly with local DC power. Computers generally use direct current, but the public electricity grid typically supplies alternating current, and 30 percent of the electricity can be lost in the conversion of one form to the other.

Some colleges have started projects to power their computers directly from solar cells or other sources of DC power on the campus, avoiding the energy loss altogether. At San Diego, administrators hope to build a "power ring" that will supply computers across the campus with DC power, said Mr. DeFanti.

The rethinking of how to supply campus power is part of a broader effort to "divorce ourselves from the electrical grid," said Bill St. Arnaud, chief research officer at Canarie Inc., a Canadian computer-networking organization. Power-transmission lines lose a significant amount of energy over long distances, he said, which means that supplying a campus with energy from faraway power plant can be inefficient.

A better strategy, Mr. St. Arnaud said, is to build campus data centers next to a renewable source of power, like a solar plant. High-speed optical transmission lines, he said, would ensure that the computers would seem "as close as next door."

As far as I am seeing, the university has solar panels at the rooftop but I just don’t know if it’s still functioning. If it is, it can be used for us or the university to refrain from using electricity and paying lots of money for it. We could also adopt cooling servers only where they get the hottest.

Campus computing comes up green

Center works to safely dispose of e-waste

By Arthur Raymond, Jarad Reddekopp

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/news/campus-computing-comes-up-green-1.345643

Lcal freelance artist Bruce English searches for a new computer monitor for his work. Used electronics are recycled and resold on campus at the Surplus and Salvage Building Local freelance artist Bruce English searches for a new computer monitor for his work. Used electronics are recycled and resold on campus at the Surplus and Salvage Building near the Residence Halls.

Although students enjoy the stylish new Macs and PCs in computing labs across campus, some might stop to ponder the fate of that dusty, old machine with the sticky keys they loved to hate in last year's class.

The U's Green Computing Resource Center helps ensure that electronic dinosaurs, now known as e-waste, stay out of the landfill, and is addressing a host of other environmental issues created by the vast array of technological hardware and processes at the U.

Andrew Reich, an IT architect at the U, explained that the center is addressing issues "across a broad spectrum of environmental concerns."

Some solutions are simple and can be addressed immediately by anyone who uses a computer on campus, Reich said. Using a thumb-drive in place of burning a CD, utilizing network connections for data transfer instead of other media and simply turning off a machine or monitor when you're done with it are all steps that save energy and resources.

In the bigger view, Reich and others involved with the group are looking at where equipment comes from. A new way of evaluating sustainability in products is the so-called "cradle-to-cradle" design scheme, which determines how easily and efficiently a product can be re-utilized and/or recycled before it's made. These design considerations optimize the ability to deal with the product responsibly when its "useful" life is over.

Currently, e-waste generated at the U is processed via the university surplus and salvage department. This department separates anything that still has "utility" from true waste. Usable items are resold, while waste is handled by Guaranteed Recycling Xperts, a company that contracts with the state and local schools to process this e-waste in an environmentally responsible manner.

The Recycling Coalition of Utah, a non-profit group that advocates and provides information on recycling issues, notes the toxicity of components in used equipment. These components include lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium and brominated flame retardants. All are hazardous and can create long-term issues if not handled properly. GRX deconstructs the outdated machinery at their processing facility in Clearfield and isolates anything containing hazardous materials. Some components are re-utilized and some are recycled. Their stated goal is to return 100 percent of the material to the manufacturing process.

Eric Anderson, a GRX regional manager, said their Clearfield facility is processing about 200,000 lbs. of e-waste every month. This includes what he estimated to be seven to eight pallets of material from the U, collected every three weeks.

In addition to tracking the responsible handling of e-waste, the resource center is looking for ways to reduce systems power consumption, efficiently cool the heat generated by equipment like server-centers and centralizing data operations, with a possible campus data center on the horizon.

Reich hopes the center, which he described as "still in its infancy," can develop into a dynamic resource for evaluating and addressing information technology "green" issues campus-wide. Plans are in the works for coordination with the U's Office of Sustainability.

The university could adopt the e-waste management idea by putting e-waste bins in the school to ensure proper disposal of such wastes and could let it stay-out in landfills.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i really think that not only your university but all universities should apply green campus computing to save energy . . now is the time to do soething . .

Anonymous said...

I like your post.
We should really do what we can because its crisis time nowadays.
We should really think future wise.
Just browsing when I happen to open your blog.


-Amie

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